Living With Him
by amehanaa
Summary: Lucy Heartfilia is moving into her new apartment to live alone for the first time. She's ready to live her independent life, but why is there a pink-haired boy claiming that it's his apartment, too?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, everyone~ It's been so long since I've started a new story, I'm actually really nervous! **

**Starting a new story reminded me on how hard it is to think of a good summary.**

**I'm going to try to make each character in this fanfic as similar as I can make them to their actual character. There will be some exceptions on some parts, though.**

**I hope you all like this story, because I'm eager to write more of it. **

**That's all I have to say for now! Enjoy the first chapter, everyone. uwu **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, because if I did, the current arc in the anime wouldn't be as awful as it is. **

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><p>Today was the day. Today was the day that Lucy Heartfilia was moving into her apartment and living alone for the first time.<p>

It didn't matter that her mother might call her every few seconds or her father might do the exact opposite and never speak to her again.

She was living by herself now. She was going to have to follow the expectations and make adult-like decisions. Lucy was more than ready for it.

"Yes, Mom, I'm fine," the blonde spoke with a crooked neck, her phone snug in between her neck and shoulder.

She firmly held a box filled with her belongings, nervously eying the stairs. How could she climb up these stairs and avoid tipping backwards?

"Are you sure you don't want to come live with us?" her mother double-checked.

"I can't leave Magnolia, Mom," Lucy reminded her.

It was impossible for her to leave the town she grew up in. After hearing the news of moving countries due to her father's work, Lucy begged her parents for weeks to let her stay behind.

"Well, you have to grow up one day," her father stated with his permanent grimace when Lucy had pleaded for the third time that day.

He said no more, but Lucy knew that was his way of saying yes.

So the search for apartments began. It wasn't until a month later when she found the perfect one—it was cheap, too. When she was at last able to call that apartment hers, she jumped with joy.

She wanted to sprint to the apartment and already begin the adventure of living by herself.

"Are you sure you want to live by yourself?" her mother repeated on the phone.

"Yes, I'm sure!" Lucy assured positively. "I'm moving in right now so I'll talk to you later!"

She shifted the box towards the railing and held it up with her knee. She tapped the hang up button on her phone several times.

Saving the worst for last, she decided to start moving the boxes before lugging up her suitcases. Figuring out how she was going to pull up her suitcases up the stairs was something she didn't want to worry about yet.

Once Lucy reached the second floor of the apartment and pushed open the door to her new home, everything sank in.

She was on her own now; there was no going back.

Shyly peeking in as if she was sneaking inside someone's home, she entered her apartment and took a look at her new place.

"It's better than what Mom described it as," she smiled to herself as she finished her observation, the apartment smelling fresh and new.

Her arms began to ache due to the box in her hands. There were two doors she could pick from. To save the trouble, she went for the bedroom with the door wide open.

"Finally," she breathed out as she set the heavy box on her bed. She did a slow spin around her new room; she was in love with it already.

She sat on the edge of her bed with content when a thud came from the room with the closed door.

"Was that something in the other room?" she thought to herself, slowly standing up.

"Happy, what are you doing? Come here!" a muffled voice traveled through the wall.

Lucy stepped out of her room and stared at the closed white door curiously. Though she had no idea why she was doing this, she lifted a hand and brushed her knuckles on it.

"Are you the maintenance man?" she raised her voice so it could be heard from the other side of the door.

It was silent as her overly imaginative thoughts went in every direction at once. What if it was some insane serial killer behind the door?

Taking a deep breath, she touched the doorknob yet it turned on its own.

She took a startled step back and peered at the person exiting the room.

It was, in fact, a man but he did _not_ look like a maintenance man. His regular clothes told her otherwise.

Adding on to that, he looked like he was her age. He had messy pink spikes as hair with a tan skin tone that weirdly enough matched.

His hazel orbs were intriguing, unintentionally begging her to look at them more. Lucy couldn't shake away the feeling that she had seen this face before.

"Maintenance man?" he repeated with furrowed eyebrows. "Are you the cleaning lady?"

"Cleaning lady?" she repeated this time, her eyebrows doing the same. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"I live here, cleaning lady," he answered, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed.

"H-Huh?!" she exclaimed. "I think you have the wrong apartment. This is where I live."

The man dug into his pocket and held up his key with numbers engraved into it, "My key says room 207."

"So does mine," she held up her key that looked exactly like his.

"When did you start living here?" he stared at her with a vacant expression.

"Today," she responded.

"Impossible," he said in disbelief.

They viewed each other expressionlessly. He broke the silence as though someone hauled him out of his trance.

"We have to talk to the landlord about this," he seized Lucy's wrist and pulled her along with him.

"Landlord!" he shouted out when they reached the lobby.

"What do you kids want?" a short old man with the name tag Makarov grumbled at the front desk.

"This girl and I were given the same apartment today," the man pointed to Lucy with his thumb.

"My name is Lucy," she muttered while rubbing her burning wrist due to his touch that he left behind.

"Is there another room for him?" Lucy asked. There was no way she was going to give up her apartment.

"Hey, I was at the apartment first," the pink-haired man stated.

"I need it more than you do," she retorted.

"Says who?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Me!" she countered.

"Enough!" Makarov barked. Lucy stared at him with large eyes; he sure sounded big although he was the size of a child.

Pulling out a binder, Makarov flipped through several laminated pages while skimming through them.

"There aren't any available rooms," he said bluntly, loudly shutting the binder.

"This can't be happening," Lucy's jaw dropped with horror.

"Are you saying I have to live with this girl?" the man inquired with his own dismay.

"My name is Lucy," she said again while rolling her eyes.

"I don't care if you live together as long as I get the monthly payment of 2000 Jewel," Makarov shrugged.

"2000 Jewel?!" the two teenagers yelled together.

"It was supposed to be 800 Jewel!" the man slammed a hand on the desk with frustration.

"I don't know where you live, but it's impossible to find 800 Jewel apartment in Magnolia," Makarov's eyes narrowed at the two.

Lucy listened to the man curse under his breath as he covered his face with a hand.

"I guess we have no choice then," he turned to her. "Let's have fun living together, Lucy."

"Y-You're serious?" she stuttered.

"I'm not paying for this apartment on my own," he claimed. "And I don't think you want to either."

"You're right," she sighed.

"Now that you're finished complaining and everything is settled, get out of here so I can sleep," Makarov demanded with an intimidating glare.

"Yes, sir!" they yelped, rushing out of the lobby.

They entered their apartment and stood in front of each other for several awkward moments.

"So, Luigi—"

"Lucy," she cut him off to correct him.

"Yeah, whatever," he waved her off. "This is going to be my side, alright?"

"We're going to have sides?" she inquired, already feeling annoyed with him. Her eyes followed him draw an imaginary line in the middle of the apartment.

"Does that bother you?" he looked at her with a taunt in the back of his eyes.

"No," she responded although it really did. Something about this guy made her think he was underestimating her.

"Good," he replied with a satisfied smile.

"What happens if we step on each other's side?" she questioned.

"The person has to wash all our dishes for three months," he answered.

"Three months?!" she exclaimed. She wasn't quite looking forward to cleaning her own dishes and she definitely did not want to clean twice as much.

"So there you have it," he presented, is bedroom door creaking open even though he wasn't near the door at all.

"Is that your cat?" she asked as a blue feline exited the room.

"His name is Happy," he informed, dipping down to hold his cat in his arms. He shuffled to the edge of the imaginary line, Lucy meeting up with him. Both of them were careful to not pass the line.

"He's cute," she complimented, petting Happy behind his ears.

"Looks like he doesn't like you," he chuckled as Happy instantly started to scratch Lucy's hands.

"Hey!" she jerked her hand away.

"He'll like you someday," he spoke half-heartedly, allowing Happy to jump out of his arms and roam around the apartment.

"Happy is on my side," Lucy watched Happy walked through her side.

"Happy doesn't count," he stated.

She couldn't hold back her aggravated sigh. She completely regretted not bringing her dog, Plue, along with her.

"Well, I'm going to my room," he told her while turning around.

"Wait!" she said before he closed the door.

"What?" he looked over his shoulder.

"I never got your name," she remarked.

"It's Natsu," he answered, shutting the door behind him.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Natsu," she mumbled, entering her room.

Falling into her bed, Lucy shoved her face into the bare mattress. She was exhausted; she would unpack tomorrow instead.

Her phone began to ring and as she read the caller ID, she felt her stress decrease just a little.

"Lu-chan, when are you letting me see your new apartment?" her best friend, Levy McGarden, instantly asked once Lucy answered.

"Uh," Lucy stuttered. How could she tell her best friend that she ended up sharing an apartment and living with someone else? Not only that, but living with a_boy_?

"Once I get everything cleaned up and decorated," Lucy bluffed.

"Hurry up, because I want to see it already," Levy urged her.

"It'll only be a few days," Lucy guaranteed, knowing that meant she was giving herself a few days to come up with another lie.

"It better be! Well, I'll see you at school tomorrow then," she spoke.

"See you tomorrow," Lucy said as she hung up.

"Hey, Lucy!" Natsu shouted in his room, giving the wall that separated them a knock.

"What?" she looked at the wall.

"Come out of your room," he ordered.

She forced herself to leave her bed and open her door.

"What do you wa—"

Lucy's eyes widened as she met a shirtless Natsu standing outside of his door.

"Put a shirt on!" she exclaimed, rotating around so she could hide her embarrassed face. She couldn't believe how quick it took for her face to warm up.

"I would, but Happy took it to your side," he complained.

It didn't take Lucy long to find his crumpled t-shirt laying on the floor. She strode to it, bending down to pick it up, and extending it out to him as she reached the edge of her line.

"H-Here," she said with her face withdrawn.

"Thanks," he responded, his fingers latching onto hers for several seconds. He returned to his room without another word.

"What is wrong with him? I can't believe him," she huffed, slamming her door shut as she entered her room once again.

Going back to her bed, she lied down in silence. This was not the adventure she wanted, but somewhere deep inside of her she knew she was eager to see where this new adventure would take her.

With that, the play button of Lucy's not so independent life was pressed.


	2. Chapter 2

**This second chapter was so much fun to write! I'm falling in love with modern AU's all over again.**

**I'm _extremely _surprised at the amount of followers this story got in one chapter! Thank you so much, I didn't expect so many of you to like it. uwu **

**Thank you for making me feel fuzzy on the inside, everyone. C:**

**This story will be updated every Wednesday, by the way!**

**I'm not sure how I feel about the pacing about this fanfic yet, but we'll see what happens sooner or later.**

**Thank you to everyone who left a review on the first chapter, and I hope you leave a lovely review once again! Enjoy chapter 2. :3**

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><p>Lucy gave out a wide yawn as soon as she woke up the next morning from the loud blares of her alarm. She surprisingly slept well; she felt that Natsu's snores would keep her from sleeping, but she didn't hear one snore from his side that night.<p>

Lifting herself off her bed, she shuffled to the door. When her door was halfway opened, she peeked her head out to look at her new roommate's door.

"Doesn't he have school?" she stared at Natsu's closed door.

She shrugged it off—it had nothing to do with her.

Lucy could feel her morning breath and wanted to brush her teeth soon. She was seconds away from entering the bathroom when a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"I didn't think you were the type of person to break the rules on our first day together, Lucy," Natsu spoke with his head poked out of his room.

Lucy turned to him with a puzzled expression.

"What rules?"

"Look at where you're standing," he nodded down to the floor.

Lucy glanced down at the floor and her eyes immediately widened, the memories of the line filling her mind.

"I didn't step over the line!" she exclaimed, taking a step back.

"Because I saved you," he replied as he exited his room. Lucy was able to see the jump in his step as he easily strolled through his side.

"I need to brush my teeth," he stated while entering the bathroom and shutting the door.

"You're kidding…" Lucy's voice trailed off; her irritation began to bubble up inside of her.

She felt helpless as the bathroom was two steps away from her but she couldn't enter due to the line that separated them.

"Do you need something?" Natsu asked as he stuck his head out of the bathroom, his toothbrush hanging off the side of his mouth.

"You made this line just so you could have the bathroom, didn't you?" she crossed her arms with a frown.

"Maybe," he grinned, shutting the door again.

"I can't believe him," Lucy shook her head with disbelief. She could tell Natsu was deliberately running the water loudly to mock her.

"Two can play at this game," she declared as she stomped her way to the kitchen that was on her side.

She knew exactly what to do that would make Natsu fall on his knees and beg for forgiveness.

Lucy smiled to herself as she whipped up the best breakfast she had ever made in her life. She was glad she had decided to buy some groceries items before moving in.

The smell bacon made her stomach growl as it sizzled on the pan.

"Hey, Happy," she smiled down at the feline that sat in front of her, eyeing the food she held.

She happily dug into her eggs at the table in the kitchen and when she saw the bathroom door open, she began to wave.

"Have a nice shower?" she questioned.

"Yeah," Natsu responded slowly as his eyes landed on her food, his nose twitching at the smell of the bacon.

"The food I made is _really _good," Lucy said as she pointed down to her plate. "Even Happy thinks it's good, too."

"It looks like it," he slightly licked his lips.

"Do you want some?" she offered, feeling the sweet victory at her fingertips.

"Yes," he nodded.

"Let me use the bathroom," she demanded.

She watched as Natsu thought about it. It didn't take him long to answer.

"In return, will you make breakfast for me every day?" he negotiated with her.

"Deal," she responded. She always had leftovers for her breakfast, anyway.

"This is the only time you can cross the line," Natsu instructed.

"Same goes for you when coming to the kitchen," Lucy replied, extremely satisfied with the way things turned out.

She stood up from her seat to finalize the deal with a handshake. Once the deal was on, the two crossed each other's line without worrying about having to wash dishes for three months.

"Your food is really good!" Natsu shouted as soon as Lucy had finished using the bathroom.

Her eyes widened when she realized Natsu was standing right in front of the door, waiting for her to exit.

"D-Didn't I say it was?" she attempted to quip while walking past him. She was alarmed at how close his face was to hers just a second ago.

"Can you make my lunch for me, too?" he asked with bright eyes.

Lucy spun around with her mouth open. How much did this guy want?

Her no was at the tip of her tongue but after taking a look at his radiant expression, she gave in.

"Fine, I will starting tomorrow," she sighed. "But don't tell anyone I made it for you at your school, okay?"

"Why not?" he inquired.

"Because," she returned to going back to her room. "I don't want anyone to know we're living together."

"Why's that?" he pressed.

"It'll be troublesome if someone finds out," she answered shortly, closing her door behind her.

If they talked any longer, Lucy was sure she was going to be late for school.

She quickly slipped on her school uniform and as she stepped out of her room, she froze when she noticed Natsu's uniform.

"We go to the same school?!" she exclaimed.

"I guess we do," Natsu nodded with his own minor shock, noticing their matching uniforms.

"What class are you in?" she asked frantically.

"Class F," he answered.

"That's why I've never seen you before," she realized. "I'm in Class L."

Somehow, it relieved Lucy that they were in the same grade. She had no idea how she would feel if he was younger or older.

"We're going to be late for school!" she gasped after glancing at the time. "Come on!"

She reached for Natsu's wrist and hauled him with her as they rushed down the stairs to sprint to school.

"You run too slow," he told her as he seemed to magically appear in front of her and lead instead.

Although Lucy didn't like how his hand slipped down to hold her hand, she decided to keep her mouth shut this time. As long as she wasn't late to school, she wasn't going to complain.

"We made it!" she breathed out as they entered the school gates.

"Because of me," Natsu gave a smug smile.

"Yeah, whatever," she rolled her eyes. "I'll see you later then."

"Later," he said while they separated to go to their classrooms that were in different hallways.

"Lu-chan, you're here! I thought you were going to be late," a bluenette greeted at the door to their classroom.

"Sorry, Levy-chan. I woke up late," Lucy gave an apologetic smile as she trotted to assigned seat.

"How does it feel living by yourself?" a girl with dark purple eyes twisted around in her chair to talk to Lucy.

"Weird," Lucy responded.

"What does that mean?" she leaned forward with curiosity.

"Cana, give her some space," a female with flaming red hair gently placed a hand on Cana's shoulder.

"You know you're curious, too, Erza!" Cana retorted.

It was clear Erza was just as curious as all the other girls surrounding Lucy. She looked at Lucy with a sheepish smile.

"When can we come over?" she asked.

"Yeah, I want to go already!" Levy whined.

"I haven't put the decor up yet," Lucy stammered, not meeting the pairs of eyes on her.

"We can help you with that," Erza assured.

"Uh," the blonde hesitated. She couldn't lie her way out of it now.

"How about tomorrow?" she ended up suggesting.

"Yes!" Levy cheered.

"I'll bring the drinks," Cana wiggled her eyebrows.

"You better not," Erza commanded.

"Everyone get ready for class!" the teacher barked as soon as the bell rang.

Lucy inwardly sighed as she listened to the teacher's monotone voice. It was just her luck that she had the most tedious teacher for her first period.

She felt herself drifting away in her mind and into her thoughts, but she didn't bother to stop it.

"What is Natsu is doing right now?" she wondered.

As soon as she processed what she had thought, she instantly began to shake her head.

What was _he_ doing in _her_ thoughts?

"Lu-chan, are you okay?" Levy whispered beside her.

"What?" Lucy lifted her head to look at her best friend.

"You look mad," she remarked.

"I was thinking about the last episode of this show I watch," Lucy responded, going back to filling out her notes.

Eventually, lunch rolled its way to Lucy. She breathed out a sigh of relief; she desperately wanted to leave the classroom for some fresh air.

"You forgot to bring your lunch, too?" Levy asked once they decided to go to the cafeteria to get their food.

"I woke up late," Lucy reminded her, though it was mainly—or mostly—because she was distracted by Natsu to remember to make her lunch.

"I bet your apartment is so nice!" Levy gushed.

Lucy was about to assure her it wasn't as nice as she thought it was, but it was undeniable.

"It's pretty nice," Lucy admitted.

"How does your window view look like? Is the shower nice? Do you have a big living room?" Levy asked in one breath.

"The window is—"

"Excuse me," a voice interrupted them.

Lucy turned to look at the person and immediately took a step back to give them some room.

"Sorry!" she apologized.

"Don't worry about it," the raven haired boy replied.

Lucy looked at the boy but the person's hair beside him caught her eye.

"Watch where you're going next time," Natsu spoke.

"Watch where _you're_ going," Lucy countered.

"Lu-chan," Levy whispered with large eyes.

Lucy eyes widened as she realized what she had blurted out.

"Sorry," she repeated, her cheeks warming up in embarrassment. She severely wanted to wipe off that stupid smirk on Natsu's face.

"Come on, Gray," Natsu signaled him to follow him. "Let's go before her face gets any redder."

"Hey," Gray didn't move from his spot as Natsu began to walk away. "You were in such a good mood earlier because of the food you ate this morning! What happened?"

Lucy looked over her shoulder to see Natsu frozen. She made sure that he could hear her soft laugh.

"He's not always a jerk, I swear," Gray guaranteed. "See you around, um…"

"Lucy," she told him.

"See you around, Lucy," Gray gave her a smile then went to catch up with Natsu.

"That was weird," Levy frowned as they continued to walk to the cafeteria.

"Tell me about it," Lucy nodded, peeking behind her shoulder again to see Natsu shoving Gray away. A small smile began to play at her lips.

"Let's go get lunch now, I'm hungry."

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><p>The last bell of the day sounded like music to Lucy's ears. She rose from her seat and enthusiastically waved goodbye to her friends.<p>

"She looks excited," Cana remarked as Lucy was already leaving the classroom.

"I wish I could live by myself," Levy sighed.

"You wouldn't last a day!" Cana cackled.

"Hey!" she pouted.

Lucy had no idea why she was hurrying home as fast as she was. She lightly hummed to herself as the spring air surrounded her.

While humming, she realized that she was secretly excited to see Natsu again. But she would never tell a soul that.

Stopping at the closest store to buy some ingredients for her dinner that night, she gleefully twirled the plastic bags in her hands while returning home.

She had to place the bags in one hand on the ground to unlock the door. Once it was unlocked, she picked up the bags and entered her apartment.

Natsu's name was just about to be called out, but a voice made her stop.

"This apartment is awesome," Gray's voice floated from Natsu's room.

"Isn't it?" Natsu bragged.

Lucy's feet felt nailed to the ground as she watched Natsu's door open.

As Natsu exited his room, his eyes immediately connected with Lucy.

"What is he doing here?!" Lucy hastily mouthed the words.

"Hey, Gray, I need to show you something else in my room," he stated quickly, going back inside his room.

Lucy took that as her sign to drop the bags into the kitchen and dash into her room. She winced at how loud the click of her door sounded when it closed.

She pressed her back against the door and attentively listened to each word she could hear.

"What's that room for?" Gray asked once they exited Natsu's room, oblivious to all the noises Lucy was positive sounded as loud as the horn of a car.

"That's where I put all my useless stuff," Natsu answered, making Lucy's mouth drop in astonishment.

"He really knows how to push my buttons," Lucy huffed to herself as she shuffled to her bed after making sure it was clear to move.

She couldn't tell how long Gray was going to stay over and by the pointless conversations the boys were having, she knew it wasn't going to be any time soon.

In the meantime, she chose to do her homework. Although it was extremely hard to focus on her work since the sound of the boys' video game seemed to be on its loudest volume.

So instead of actually doing her homework, she listened to the boys make jokes that at some points made her have to press a firm hand to her mouth to keep from making a noise.

Lucy's pencil paused as Natsu and Gray were silent for just a second. In that quiet second, her stomach growled.

"What was that?" Gray inquired.

"It was my stomach," Natsu answered smoothly. "I'm hungry."

Lucy pushed her forehead against her notebook in humiliation. Why, out of all times, did her stomach have to so loud?

Their voices began to come from the kitchen; the plastic bags ruffling around as they spoke. Lucy hoped Natsu wasn't freely walking through her side like she thought he was.

"Let me use the bathroom," Gray said as his steps patted against the floor as he entered the bathroom.

The silence returned and Lucy's stomach resumed to growl.

"Be quiet already!" she whispered to her stomach, but it paid no attention to her.

She instantly looked up at her door when she heard it gently open. Natsu entered her room with a bottle of water and a bowl of chips.

"Tell your stomach to shut up," he muttered as he handed her the food.

"I'm trying," she mumbled, gratefully taking the bowl. Never in her life did chips look so good. After admiring the food, her neck snapped up.

"You're on my side," she hissed.

"Spare me just this once?" he asked softly.

Lucy hesitated at his tone. How did his voice make her falter like that?

"Fine," she responded.

Spinning around, Natsu began to exit her room. Before shutting the door he looked over his shoulder.

"Sorry for making you stay here and being hungry."

"It's okay," she assured with a smile.

She watched as Natsu returned the smile. He closed the door behind him without another word.

Lucy munched on the chips as quietly as she could, flinching with each crunch that she was sure Gray could hear.

By the time Gray had left, Lucy's eyelids were too heavy to keep open. Though she fell asleep with ease knowing that he didn't find out about her living with Natsu.

Their first day of living together was a success. She was grateful Natsu had distracted Gray from her.

Perhaps Natsu wasn't as bad as of a guy as she assumed he was.

Was what Lucy thought before she found out the next morning that he had ate all three cups of her favorite yogurt.


	3. Chapter 3

**I just keep loving this fanfic more and more after each chapter. Is it weird that I'm loving my own fanfic? It's weird, isn't it. **

**Just wanted to let you guys know this fanfic will be in a Japanese school setting with some Japanese customs. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask so I can explain it to you! **

**Good luck to everyone taking midterms at the moment! Just two more days and you'll be free for the rest of the year~**

**Thank you so much for reading! It really means a lot to me. c': **

**See you guys next week, and I hope you enjoy this chapter. :3**

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><p>"So what are you going to do after school ends?" Lucy interrogated for the third time that morning.<p>

"I'm going to run here and stay in my room," Natsu answered with the voice of a robot.

"And how long are you going to stay there?"

"An hour."

"No, Natsu," Lucy groaned, shaking her head. "You're going to stay in your room until my friends leave."

"Oh, yeah," he recalled, carelessly shoving his breakfast into his mouth.

Lucy rolled her eyes as she rose from her seat that was opposite of Natsu's. She leaned against the counter after gently placing her plate in the sink. She stared at Natsu's messy eating with distaste.

"Hey, Lucy," he began.

"Don't talk with your mouth full!" she exclaimed, horrified with the amount of food that spewed out of his mouth.

"Sorry," he chuckled at her reaction. "I have a question."

"What?" she lifted a brow.

"What if I have to use the bathroom?"

"You hold it," she instructed simply.

"What if I get hungry like you did?" he asked.

"That's why you have some snacks in your room," she responded.

"What if—"

"Can you just stay in your room?" Lucy whined, somewhat tired of how complicated Natsu was being.

A smile tugged at the edges of Natsu's lips; he directed his attention to his packed lunch on the counter.

"I hope your friends have fun while being here," he stated while snatching his lunch bag.

"W-Why do you sound like that?" she stuttered after catching a glimpse of mischief in his eyes.

"See you later," he spoke, not bothering to answer her question.

"Natsu, wait!" she shouted as he exited the apartment and shut the door behind him.

Lucy grit her teeth as she saw the tips of Natsu's spikes out the window.

"If you do anything while my friends are here, your life will end tonight," she threatened under her breath.

With a sigh, she tried her best to push away her anxiety.

"He won't do anything, right?" she asked to herself silently while she walked to school.

For the time being, Lucy had no choice but to trust that Natsu won't be doing anything that would jeopardize their secret while her friends were over.

"Good morning, Lu-chan!" Levy greeted as Lucy ambled into the classroom.

"Good morning, everyone," Lucy smiled to her friends, sitting down in her seat.

"I'm excited to see your apartment today," Erza said.

"I have the drinks right here," Cana lightly patted her school bag with a grin.

"I brought some snacks!" Levy imitated Cana's movements.

"You didn't have to do that," Lucy gave a nervous laugh. Their enthusiasm made her feel incredibly uneasy.

"What kind of best friends would we be if we didn't bring something?" Cana inquired, giving Erza a side glance at her empty hands.

"I'm bringing you my friendship!" Erza defended herself.

"Not enough," Levy shook her head with disapproval.

"It's fine," Lucy assured to Erza's panicked expression.

The bell began to chime throughout the school but that didn't stop that girls from socializing.

"Are you going to be making dinner for us?" Levy questioned, nearly jumping in her seat.

"Sure," Lucy replied without a second thought.

She then realized that making dinner for her friends meant they were going to be staying over until late. What if Natsu won't be able to stay in his room for that long?

But Gray stayed over until late, so why couldn't _her_ friends do the same? It was only fair. This was Natsu's payback.

"What will you be making us?" Erza asked.

Lucy paused to think, her thoughts only focused on revenge. Then it clicked when she remembered the small hot sauce bottle Natsu dropped into his lunch bag in the morning. A wicked grin spread across her face.

"How about spicy chicken curry?"

* * *

><p>"I can't wait to see your apartment!" Levy cheered as the bell rang, dismissing the students from school.<p>

"I've been thinking about eating curry ever since you mentioned it," Cana admitted, giving Lucy an accusing look.

"The wait will be worth it," Lucy guaranteed.

As the four stepped out of school, Lucy hoped that Natsu was sprinting to their home as fast as humanly possible.

"Is it okay if we stop at the store for a bit? I forgot I don't have some of the ingredients for the curry," Lucy spoke when they were close to her apartment.

"Sure," her friends responded.

It wasn't a lie, but this short trip to the store would give Natsu extra time to get home. The only thing Lucy was doing was a favor.

"I've never been here before," Levy revealed as they entered the small store, her eyes scanning the four aisles.

"Me either," Erza stated.

"You two don't get out much," Cana scoffed.

Lucy didn't want to spend too much time in the store; it would look suspicious if she did. So once she was sure Natsu was securely tucked inside his room, she strolled to the front counter.

"300 Jewel," the person at the other side of the counter told Lucy.

She handed him the money, trying not to let her eyes linger on his numerous piercings for too long.

"Come again," he said disinterestedly as though he was reading a script.

"Well, he was boring," Cana said bluntly, the girls leaving the store.

"Those piercings made me want to cringe," Erza shivered.

"It must have been painful to get all those," Lucy shuddered along with Erza.

"I think he was sort of cool looking," Levy mumbled.

"You like those kinds of guys?!" Cana blurted out with surprise.

"T-They're not bad looking," Levy stammered, struggling for words.

"It seems like Levy has a crush," Erza teased.

"I don't even know him!" Levy flushed.

"But you want to," Lucy giggled.

Levy averted her gaze to the ground so her friends couldn't see her blazing face anymore.

Lucy had forgotten all about her anxiety, but once she looked up at her apartment building, it returned all at once.

"Not bad," Erza observed the building.

"It looks better inside," Lucy replied, leading her friends up the stairs to the second floor.

She swallowed back a lump of panic as she touched the doorknob. Her breath jumped into her throat as she subconsciously turned the doorknob without unlocking it first.

"You left your door unlocked all day?" Levy gasped.

"That's not safe, Lucy. What if someone comes in?" Erza scolded.

"I guess I forgot to lock it this morning," Lucy smiled sheepishly, mentally cursing Natsu for making her take the blame. She turned back to finish opening the door for her friends.

"Welcome to my home, guys," she spoke loudly so Natsu could hear. She took the silence as a good sign.

"It's better than what I imagined!" Levy raved, entering the apartment and spinning around in a circle.

"I like it a lot," Erza complimented.

"You wouldn't mind if I accidentally started living here, right?" Cana joked, just as impressed as Erza and Levy.

"Show us your room!" Levy ordered, bouncing in place.

Lucy excitedly widened her door for her friends to enter; she couldn't help but want more compliments.

"It's so nice," Levy sighed happily, sprawling across Lucy's bed.

"It is," Lucy couldn't deny it.

"I'm so jealous," Cana admitted.

"You can come over whenever you want," Lucy told them with a smile, not worrying about all the precautions she would have to do beforehand.

The girls exited the room; Lucy's back began tingle as she shut the door behind her.

"What's that room for?" Erza asked, nodding her head to Natsu's door.

"That's where I put all my useless stuff," Lucy replied, desperately wishing she could see the look on Natsu's face at that moment.

"Even the bathroom is amazing!" Levy proclaimed, her voice echoing inside of the bathroom.

"Thank you," Lucy grinned, content with the compliments.

"I love this place," Levy did another sigh of delight as she fell onto the couch.

"You're too childish, Levy," Erza clicked her tongue, sitting beside her.

"You look like a child, too," Cana chimed in, plopping down with them.

"I'm just happy for Lu-chan," Levy pouted.

Lucy giggled at her friends, feeling courageous that she had crossed the line and there was no way Natsu was ever going to know.

Turning on the TV, she put the volume louder than usual just in case Natsu decided to do something.

Strangely enough, Natsu was completely silent in his room for at least an hour. He had even slipped from Lucy's mind until she heard soft scratching noises behind her.

"I didn't know you had a cat, Lucy," Erza spoke as she twisted around to the bedroom doors.

Lucy turned around with a perplexed expression, forbidding her eyes to widen when she saw Happy dragging his paws on Natsu's door.

"It's not mine," she said quickly, heaving herself up from the couch. "He likes to come in here at random times."

"Why don't you just keep him?" Cana questioned.

Lucy was too focused on trying to get a hold of Happy so she didn't answer Cana's question. She opened the door slightly so Happy could slide through.

"There you go, Happy," Lucy gave him a gentle push into Natsu's room, closing the door immediately after Happy entered.

"What kind of name is Happy?" Cana snorted.

"A weird one," Lucy responded.

Returning back to the couch, she let out a sigh. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears, but she was grateful her friends weren't questioning her just yet.

"Do you guys want to help me make dinner?" Lucy asked after a while, the snacks Levy brought being completely finished.

"I'm starving," Levy stated, rising from the couch to head to the kitchen.

"I don't know how to make curry," Cana confessed.

"I'll teach you," Lucy confirmed.

They were already in the kitchen and pulling out the ingredients when Levy's voice made Lucy freeze.

"Lu-chan, why is there a guy's shirt on the floor?"

"W-What?" Lucy squeaked, poking her head out of the kitchen to look at what Levy was staring at. Her jaw dropped after seeing Natsu's crumpled up shirt on the floor.

Hastily placing the onions back onto the counter, she dashed to pick up the shirt.

"D-Don't you know it's smart to have a guy's shirt when doing laundry?" Lucy laughed nervously.

"This apartment complex doesn't seem like it has a lot of weird people here, though," Erza frowned.

"I'm just trying to be safe," Lucy replied, spinning around and opening Natsu's door. From the kitchen, the girls couldn't see inside the room.

"I'm going to toss this in here," she said, flinging the shirt right into Natsu's face.

She felt satisfied to see his covered face but when he slid it off to reveal his smirk, her eye twitched in irritation.

"Lu-chan, how many cloves of garlic do we need?" Levy called out.

"Your friends need help, Lu-chan," Natsu whispered with a grin.

"Shut up," Lucy glared at him, using all her strength to not slam his door shut.

Marching back into the kitchen, Lucy had never felt such motivation before as she made sure the smell of curry drifted throughout all of Magnolia.

"This is delicious!" Levy exclaimed after the curry was made.

"I'm surprised you can taste the curry with all the water you're chugging," Erza laughed slightly at the glasses of water surrounding Levy.

"Is it too spicy?" Lucy asked, feeling just a touch of mild heat on her tongue. For some reason, she could always tolerate spicy food.

"It tastes exactly how it should be," Cana guaranteed, although she had three cups of water beside her.

"It's perfect," Erza stated as she was nearly halfway done with her bowl.

"Thanks to you guys," Lucy smiled, hoping that the smell of curry was the only thing Natsu was breathing in.

Three more servings later, the girls leaned in their chairs with a full stomach.

"We're so coming over again, Lu-chan," Levy spoke with her head dangling back.

"Me too," Cana agreed.

"I'll bring something next time," Erza said.

"Your friendship is enough," Lucy assured.

Once the girls were capable of lifting themselves off their chair, they began to step towards the door.

"You better let us come again," Levy attempted to be menacing.

"Of course," Lucy nodded while opening the door. "Come over anytime you want."

"We'll remember that," Cana smiled slyly.

"See you tomorrow, Lucy," Erza waved.

"Bye, guys," Lucy returned her wave.

Lucy was nanoseconds away from closing the door when there was a loud sneeze behind her.

"What was that?" Erza questioned.

"I think my neighbor sneezed," Lucy responded, looking behind her. "The walls here are really thin!"

"No kidding," Cana spoke, eyeing the neighboring door with judgment.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then! Thanks for coming!" Lucy said shortly, giving another wave and abruptly shutting the door.

Once it was locked, she spun around to lean against the door with relief. The stress that was inside of her deflated like a balloon.

She felt a huge weight begin to float away from her chest; it made her pause to realize that she wouldn't have felt so stressed if it weren't for _him_.

"You girls sure do talk a lot!" Natsu yawned as he exited his room, his hands stretching up to the ceiling.

Lucy's eyes narrowed at the nonchalant boy.

"What is the matter with you?" she asked furiously, stomping towards him to make direct eye contact.

"What did I do?" he gave her an innocent look with playful eyes.

"You!" she shouted, throwing her hands in the air. "You made me look ridiculous in front of my friends!"

"I didn't do anything!" he claimed.

Lucy stared at Natsu feeling more enraged than ever. Searching for the closest object, she seized a pillow from the couch.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Natsu smirked as Lucy held up the pillow.

"Oh, I'm sure," she ensured with a nod, not wasting a second to connect the pillow to the side of Natsu's head.

"Oh, you're on," Natsu grinned, leaning over to the couch to get his own pillow.

"No, wait!" Lucy yelled after seeing Natsu's competitive eyes. Before he could take a swing at her, she scampered to the other side of the apartment.

"We can have a truce," Natsu negotiated calmly, taking steady steps towards her. Lucy was too busy contemplating about it to notice he was close to her.

"But I don't want to do that yet," he stated, swinging the pillow so it hit her on her shoulder.

"That's not fair!" she proclaimed, taking Natsu's pause as her chance.

Natsu easily blocked it with his pillow and went in for another swing, but Lucy leaped out of the way just in time.

"H-Hold on!" she giggled breathlessly, tucking her loose locks of hair behind her ear.

"It's not healthy to run away from your problems, Lucy," Natsu taunted as he began to close in on her.

"I'm not running away, I'm just—"

Lucy didn't get to finish her sentence as Natsu planted a soft hit on her face.

"What were you saying?" he asked with shining pearly whites.

Lucy stood stunned when Natsu pulled back the pillow. There was no way he was going to get away with this.

"Come here right now!" she commanded, chasing after Natsu around the apartment.

Lucy and Natsu paid no attention to their surroundings as they hunted each other around the apartment with Happy looking up at the two with confusion.

She had even forgotten about how furious she felt before the pillow fight.

"Truce?" Natsu eventually offered with heavy breaths.

"Wait," she lifted a hand. When she was a few feet away from Natsu, she gave him another hit.

"Okay, now we can have a truce," she grinned, dropping the pillow on the floor and extending her hand out.

Natsu looked down at Lucy's hand. When he looked back up, he quickly stole a hit with his pillow. She opened her mouth to say something but dismissed her thought. It was only fair for him to get his own free hit.

"Okay," he replied, letting his pillow fall beside Lucy's pillow. "Truce."

As the two shook hands, their eyes both fell to their feet. Both of their breaths hitched.

"This never happened, okay?" he spoke, his hand still holding onto Lucy's.

"Agreed," Lucy nodded eagerly.

They had both crossed the line and were on the opposite side.

Lucy glanced at her hand inside of Natsu's, but he quickly released before she could say anything.

Sniffing the air, Natsu let his legs lead him to the kitchen, the pillow fight already gone from his mind.

"You were torturing me while making the curry," he groaned, looking at the small leftover food on the plates.

She watched as Natsu stared down at the food unhappily. She thought she was going to feel fulfilled, but seeing his frown made her feel bad.

"There should be leftovers," she revealed, walking into the kitchen. "Here there are."

She handed him the leftovers that were meant for him in the first place. Though she hadn't realized she left some extra curry for him until the girls were full.

"This is amazing," he moaned in happiness as he took a spoon full of curry.

Lucy looked at him scarf down the curry, amused with how bright his eyes were.

When he had licked the plate clean—literally—he connected eyes with Lucy. He wordlessly rose from his seat and walked towards her.

"W-What are you doing?" she stammered while Natsu leaned in towards her.

"Your hair," he said softly, patting her hair down. He looked down at her face. "It's sticking in every direction. It's horrible."

Lucy's breath stopped as her eyes widened in surprise.

"I can fix it myself!" she huffed, placing a hand on his chest and pushing him away.

"Thank you for the dinner," Natsu chuckled as she angrily headed for her room.

"Pick up the pillows and don't oversleep tomorrow!" she ordered, entering her room and slamming the door.

Lucy could hear Natsu's laughs from the other side of the door as she leaned against it.

"Unbelievable," she shook her head, the image of Natsu's radiant expressions imprinted into her brain.

Even though she was annoyed, her brain wouldn't stop replaying all of the expressions she was able to witness for the rest of the night.

For some odd reason, those expressions made her feel happier than it should had.


	4. Chapter 4

**Now that I'm conscious of the pacing of this fanfic, I'm so nervous. I can't tell if it's rushed or not and it's freaking me out. ;_;**

**This winter break feels very nice and I hope everyone who is on break is enjoying it as well.**

**Thank you very much for reading! It makes me feel fuzzy that I almost have 200 follows already. **

**Happy Holidays, everyone! Consider this chapter my holiday present for you. It's not the best present ever, but at least it's something!**

**To the people who celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a merry one. c; **

**Enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

><p>"Hey, Natsu, could you play your video game any louder?" Lucy inquired to the pink-haired boy as his thumbs smashed every single button on his controller.<p>

Natsu's thumbs stopped moving as he paused his game. He viewed Lucy who was sitting at their kitchen table with a textbook in front of her.

"Let's see," Natsu said as he reached over to the low table in front of the TV.

Holding down one of the buttons on the TV remote, he placed it back on the table and leaned backward to his previous position.

"Looks like I can!" he yelled over the loud video game. Lucy's eye twitched in response.

They had been living together for a week and a half now. The obstacle of having friends over the apartment was over, but Lucy soon realized that Natsu himself was an obstacle.

He was noisy, sneaky, and even a little conceited sometimes. Yet Lucy found it oddly amusing.

"I am trying to study!" she declared, marching towards the table where the TV remote laid.

"Shouldn't you be studying, too?" she asked after lowering the volume down.

"I'll do it later," Natsu responded, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"If you fail the final exam, you can get held back," she warned.

"It won't happen," he guaranteed.

"How are you so sure?" she lifted an eyebrow.

"Did you see that?!" he exclaimed while pointing at the screen. "I was so close to slaying that dragon!"

"Are you listening to me?" she frowned, staring down at him.

"I have to try again," he muttered.

"I'm done trying," the blonde shook her head. She spun back around and fell in her chair to resume studying.

Although it took all of Lucy's energy to focus on what she was studying, she managed to study what she planned to. She had even glanced through the notes she was going to study tomorrow.

With a content sigh, she shut her textbook and sat back in her chair with her eyes closed. She felt extremely comfortable; she could have fallen asleep if it weren't for the annoying noises coming from the living room.

"Hey, Lucy," Natsu called out to her.

"What do you want?" she asked, not opening her eyes to look at him.

"I'm hungry," he stated.

"Make something then," she replied. She opened her eyes to pile up her things and return to her room.

"Lucy," he whined as she stepped towards her room.

She froze and peered at him expressionlessly.

"What do you want to eat?" she questioned.

Natsu smiled slightly at his victory. "I want some rice balls."

"_Now?_" Lucy's mouth fell to the floor. "Natsu, it's late."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Sorry for asking," he rotated back to the TV, his shoulders doing an exaggerated slump.

Instantly, guilt began to settle inside Lucy's chest. She bit her lip as she thought about the situation.

"If I make them right now, you have to eat them for lunch tomorrow," she arranged.

"Are you sure?" he asked as he twisted back around to face her.

"I already made up my mind," she said. "I'm making them."

"Okay," he responded smoothly, shifting back around and going back to playing his video game.

As Lucy retreated to the kitchen, she caught a glimpse of Natsu's wide grin.

"How sly," she mumbled under her breath.

Over half an hour later, the rice balls were finished. She would have been fast asleep by this time, but she didn't complain. Going to sleep late for one night wouldn't hurt.

"Natsu, the rice balls are done!"

Lucy listened to Natsu shuffling around. She nearly screamed in happiness after hearing him turn off the TV.

"Here," she placed the plate in the middle of the table for them. Along the way of making them, she wanted some, too.

"Have you ever wondered why they're called rice balls when they're actually triangles?" Natsu asked.

"Don't question it," she replied, receiving an amused smile from him.

"Can you pass me the hot sauce?" he requested after sitting down.

Lucy didn't object to his request; she had come to accept that he ate _everything_ with his beloved hot sauce.

She slid the bottle on the table to him and watched him drizzle it on top of the rice.

"Is it good with hot sauce?" she wondered aloud as she noticed how enthusiastic Natsu always was while eating her food.

"Try it," he extended his rice ball out to her.

Lucy examined the food in front of her with wide eyes.

"I'll just put some on mine," she stammered, withdrawing her gaze from him. She reached over to the bottle and began to drizzle a good amount on it.

"You need to put more than that, Lucy," he chuckled, leaning over and placing his hand on top of hers.

Her hand felt hotter than the sauce while he moved the bottle around the rice for her.

"Isn't this too much?" she inspected the now flaming red rice.

"Only a wimp would think it is," he responded with a smirk.

"R-Right," she stuttered. There was no way of getting out of this now. If she didn't eat the rice ball, her named would be changed to Wimp.

She cautiously raised the rice ball to her mouth, already feeling her eyes begin to water. She desperately hoped her tolerance for spicy food was stronger than she thought it was.

"Is it good?" Natsu asked, his smirk never faltering.

"Delicious," she forced herself to say with a mouth so hot she was sure she could breathe out fire.

"You look sick," he pointed out.

"I think it's just your imagination," she laughed weakly, placing her rice ball on the plate. "I'm already full, so I'm going to brush my teeth now."

Rising from her seat, she nonchalantly strolled to the bathroom. Once she was out of Natsu's sight, she began to sprint.

"How can someone eat something like this?!" she thought to herself with disbelief while she rinsed her mouth to get rid of the taste. She was no match for those fiery rice balls.

"Thanks for the food!" Natsu told her loudly as she went to her room.

"Yeah, yeah," she waved him off. "Goodnight."

It was way past her bedtime and she knew she was going to feel exhausted tomorrow. Even though there was a lingering sense of heat on Lucy's tongue, she fell asleep in an instant.

No matter how obnoxious Natsu was, his soft chuckles that continued to ring her ears soothed her entirely.

* * *

><p>"Lucy, wake up!" Natsu pounded on her door.<p>

Lucy opened an eye and listened to the repeating hammering with the expectations that it would stop sometime soon. When it didn't, she gave out a loud sigh.

"What do you want?" she hissed after heaving herself up from her bed.

"You overslept," Natsu stated.

Her breath stopped when she noticed he was already in uniform.

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" she exclaimed, spinning back around and slamming the door.

"Your snores were telling me not to wake you up," he responded behind the door.

Lucy didn't bother to reply as she jumped into her uniform, buttoning it up as fast her slim fingers would allow.

Seizing her phone and schoolbag, she swung open her door.

"You're not going to make breakfast?" Natsu asked when seeing the blonde dashing towards the counter in the kitchen.

"With what time?" she inquired, hastily snatching the lunch bag she was thankful she packed last night.

"Bye, Natsu," she said while exiting the apartment. There wasn't a second she could waste when school started in less than 20 minutes.

"You're breathing heavily," Erza observed as Lucy entered her classroom with a minute to spare.

"I woke up late," Lucy answered breathlessly. This time it wasn't a lie.

"Were you staying up all night studying like I was?" Levy questioned. Lucy nodded unhappily; half of it was true.

"You two are already studying?" Cana's deep purple eyes widened in surprise.

"Final exams are next week, Cana," Erza reminded her.

"And then we'll be free for two weeks!" Levy leaned back in her chair to lift her hands in the air.

"I can't wait to get a new class when we come back," Cana admitted, taking a quick look at everyone in the classroom.

"Hopefully us four are still in the same class," Lucy spoke as her voice blended in with the bell.

"Don't say things like that, Lu-chan," Levy pursed her lips with disapproval.

"I'll make sure we're all in the same class next year," Erza assured, facing the front of the classroom.

"The joys of having a scary student council president as a best friend," Cana scoffed while she twisted back around as well.

Lucy immediately leaned against her hand after one word left her teacher's lips. Though she overslept, she felt as if she didn't gain at least a minute extra of sleep.

"It's his fault he made me sleep late," she mentally cursed.

What made her weariness worse was her growling stomach. Once again, something was Natsu's fault.

"Here, Lu-chan," Levy whispered as she passed Lucy a granola bar.

"Thank you so much," Lucy replied with a grateful smile.

Food wasn't allowed to be eaten before or after lunch, so she was forced to eat it as quietly as possible. She was glad she sat in the back of the classroom.

The granola bar only satisfied Lucy's stomach for about two hours. She prayed that the next hour would pass by as quick as possible.

"Your stomach is so loud, Lucy," Cana cackled once the bell chimed that signaled lunch.

"I didn't have breakfast this morning," she explained.

Her stomach began to rumble like crazy when she pulled out her lunch bag. She could already imagine biting the lightly salted rice ball.

Peeking in her lunch bag, Lucy couldn't believe what she was seeing. That included Lucy's stomach as well because the growling stopped instantly.

"No way," she breathed out.

She reached her hand into the bag and lifted the rice ball up to see it with better clarity, but it wasn't necessary. The stench of hot sauce burned her nose.

"Where are you going?" Erza asked when Lucy surged up from her seat.

"I have to go to the restroom," Lucy answered, swiftly leaving the classroom.

"With your lunch?" Levy gave her a look of curiosity.

"What class was he in again?" Lucy asked herself while scanning the letters above each classroom.

When the letter never surfaced into her mind, she had no choice but to stick her head into each classroom.

The sound of laughter exploded from each classroom Lucy poked her head in. After five minutes of searching, she eventually spotted a pink head in Class F.

All Lucy wanted was to eat her rice balls. She was in no mood to quietly call for Natsu so nobody would notice.

"Natsu!" she screamed at the entrance of the door.

Simultaneously, each student stared at the out of breath blonde. She didn't bat an eye to anyone because all she wanted was her food.

"Can you please come here with your lunch, Natsu?" Lucy asked with a forced polite smile.

"Uh, sure," he gave her a strange look, pushing himself off the desk he was sitting on top of.

Everyone began to whistle as Natsu walked through the classroom to exit.

"She's hot!" somebody howled.

Natsu stayed silent as he exited the classroom. Though the door was open, Natsu slid it shut.

Lucy could hear the gossip already blossoming, but she ignored it.

"Follow me," she grabbed Natsu's wrist and pulled him with her to the back of the school. Thankfully, the spring air in Magnolia was warmer than usual.

"How do you know my name?" he questioned playfully.

"I wish I didn't," she quipped while tugging him with her.

"Are you going to confess to me?" he smirked once Lucy found an area isolated from everyone.

"Absolutely not," she shook her head, shoving her lunch bag into Natsu's chest. "I accidentally grabbed your lunch bag this morning."

"I knew this lunch bag smelled weird," he said while handing her lunch bag.

"What does it smell like?" she inquired, raising her bag to sniff it.

"Not hot sauce," he replied.

She held back a scoff, but her stomach didn't hold back another growl.

"I'll be going now," Lucy spoke, whirling away on her heels to return to the classroom.

"When will you be confessing to me?" he called out.

"I'm not going to confess to you!" she yelled over her shoulder. Again, she ignored the looks aimed at her.

"As if I would confess to someone like you," she shook her head slightly with a smile just barely peeking out.

Lucy couldn't fight the impulse to eat anymore. While she strode to her classroom, she chewed her rice balls happily.

"Are you okay, Lu-chan? You were in the bathroom for a long time," Levy asked with worry when Lucy returned.

"I'm fine," Lucy assured with a smile. She thought her smile was going to be forced, yet it came naturally.

"Couldn't hold it in, huh?" Cana sipped on her juice.

"Cana, we're eating," Erza whined. Lucy giggled as she continued to eat her lunch.

There was something about Natsu that made her forget her worries; however, her friends always made her stress dissolve in an instant. That was something he could _never _do for Lucy.

And anyway, Natsu was simply her roommate, after all.


	5. Chapter 5

**I feel like I haven't updated in forever. How are you guys?**

**I apologize I haven't updated since last year! (yes, I'm still making those jokes) Things have gotten hectic and busy and now that second semester has started, school is taking over my life again.**

**But thankfully, I'm halfway done with sophomore year. :')**

**Thank you for reading! It's the coolest thing ever that it's only the 5th chapter yet I already have 200 reviews. You guys are awesome, seriously.**

**Though the one-shot has been out for almost a week, I want to just remind you guys that I have a new story up! If you haven't read it, I'd love if you did. :]**

**I'll be going back to updating weekly from now on, sorry for taking a break without saying anything!**

**Enjoy this chapter, everyone. **

* * *

><p>Lucy had never done so much studying her life.<p>

She studied in her room, the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, the laundry room, and even in the bathtub.

When she wasn't studying, she was going over the material she had just previously studied.

And where did Natsu study? Absolutely nowhere.

"I'm jealous of you, Natsu," Lucy admitted as she chewed on the tip of her pen while she studied. She sat with her legs crossed on the part of the couch that was considered her side.

"Why?" he smirked as he continued to smash the buttons on his video game controller.

"You never study, yet you get perfect scores," she sighed, remembering how startled she was after seeing one of his crumpled up tests in the trash.

"It takes years of practice," he revealed.

"It does?" she inquired, looking down at him who was sitting down on the floor while playing his video game.

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Just a guess."

"You're hopeless," she shut her textbook in her lap. She heaved herself off the couch and began to stroll to her room.

"Don't sleep too late," she advised.

"Yeah, yeah," he brushed her off.

Lucy leaped into her bed and closed her eyes, listening to the noises from the TV. She had gotten used to going to sleep with Natsu's video game sounding throughout their apartment.

She would have probably felt weird if she _didn't_ hear it while sleeping.

"Two more days," she told her dark room.

Two more days of exams and Lucy was finally going to be finished with the school year.

* * *

><p>"If I see one more test I think I'm going to hit someone," Levy spoke wearily as she ate her lunch.<p>

"We only have one more test and we're finished," Erza smiled with content.

"And in two weeks we'll be in a different classroom with different people," Lucy stated.

"You made sure we'll be in the same class, right?" Cana muttered to Erza as if it was a secret.

"Of course," she guaranteed. "It's set in stone."

"That's great!" Levy cheered.

"We should do something today," Lucy suggested.

"Yeah, let's go out somewhere," Levy agreed.

"Actually," Erza cleared her throat awkwardly. "I have a friend that wants me to hang out with him today."

"_Him?_" Cana repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"Is he cute?" Levy winked.

"He's a friend that's in student council with me," Erza explained.

"What's his name?" Lucy asked curiously.

"Jellal," Erza answered.

"I hope you have fun with _Jellal_," Levy wiggled her eyebrows.

"So what will us three do?" Lucy questioned to her friends.

"How about we go to that new arcade that opened a couple of months ago?" Levy submitted her idea.

"And whoever loses the most games has to buy us dinner," Cana said with competitive eyes.

"Let's go after school then," Lucy planned excitedly, being able to see unhappiness swirling inside of Erza's eyes.

"You can come with us next time," Levy assured as soon as the bell began to ring.

Immediately, each student's face in the classroom grimaced. Everyone was exhausted from the tests and would much rather sit through the boring closing ceremony after the exams.

"Good luck, guys," Levy whispered to her friends.

"You too," Erza, Cana, and Lucy whispered back.

As Lucy received her final test, she took a deep breath.

Once these 60 questions were answered, she could relax for the next two weeks without any worries.

* * *

><p>"I wish the closing ceremonies were more entertaining," Cana yawned as the girls exited the school.<p>

"My legs fell asleep twice," Levy admitted.

"But Erza's speech was good!" Lucy remarked to bring in some light into the situation.

"Yeah, I guess," Cana shrugged.

"Let's go to the arcade now!" Levy shouted with glee, running pass the gates.

"Does she even know where the arcade is?" Lucy sighed at her child-like friend.

"_I _don't even know where it is," Cana spoke.

"I thought you did!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Nope," Cana grinned. "I have no idea."

"Hopefully we find it," the blonde mumbled, feeling as if she was the mother of the group.

After grabbing a hold of Levy, the trio searched for the arcade.

"Once we hear a lot of laughing, we'll know the arcade is close," Cana claimed.

"Because that's the only way to know, right?" Lucy quipped sarcastically.

"Is that it?" Levy asked as she pointed a finger to a building.

"I hear laughing," Cana began to step towards the building. "Let's go inside."

The girls reluctantly entered the building to find arcade games spread across the entire room.

"This place is so cool," Levy said with awe as they trotted deep into the room.

The room was quite dark with the arcade games being the one of few sources of light. Soft lights dangled from the ceilings so people could watch their step.

The arcade smelled of pizza and teen spirit.

"Get ready, girls," Cana began cracking her knuckles.

"W-What are we going to play first?" Levy stuttered, sensing Cana's intimidating aura.

"How about air hockey?" Lucy suggested.

They walked towards the air hockey table and gave each other a quick glance.

"I'll play the winner," Levy volunteered. It was obvious she didn't want to be beaten by Cana first.

"Okay," Cana replied.

Lucy gulped as she stood at one end of the table. Once the coins were entered into the game, she stared at the puck that began to float.

"You can go first," Cana allowed.

With trembling hands, Lucy dragged the puck towards her and placed it in front of the crimson mallet.

"Well, here goes nothing," she mumbled.

Many groans and victories later, Lucy was proud to see the score being five to three.

"How did you do that, Lu-chan?!" Levy gasped at her victory.

"I've always been good at these types of games," Lucy showed a triumphant smile.

"You should have said that before!" Cana frowned, clearly thrown off by Lucy's hidden talent.

"I guess I forgot," Lucy responded slyly.

"Levy, go," Cana commanded as she left her spot.

"If you were my best friend you'd go easy on me, Lu-chan," Levy said nervously, the mallet looking enormous in her small hands.

"Let's see," Lucy giggled as she gently hit the puck towards Levy.

It wasn't long until Lucy had scored five points when Levy scored a grand total of zero.

"Not fair at all," Levy pouted.

"Sorry," Lucy held back another laugh.

The girls continued to roam the arcade, playing games left and right until their money was nearly nonexistent.

"Looks like Levy will be buying us dinner," Cana stated.

"Let me just buy it now to get it over with!" she declared.

"But we're not hungry yet, right, Cana?" Lucy teased.

"Guys," Levy whined.

"Fine, fine," Cana started to head towards the eating area. "Lucy and I will sit here while you go buy us something."

"We're good friends, right?" Lucy questioned after watching Levy scampering off to where all the food was being sold.

"Sometimes," Cana answered with a shrug.

It wasn't long until guilt began to spread all over Lucy. But her guilt was put on hold when her eyes landed on a certain pink-haired male that was entering the arcade.

"C-Cana!" Lucy stammered with large eyes. "What's that over there?"

She pointed to nothing in particular so they could look away. She knew if Natsu spotted her, he would do all sorts of things to embarrass her in front of her friends.

"The bathroom?" Cana inquired, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"The bathrooms are weird here!" she proclaimed. She glanced beside her to see Natsu walking away from the eating area and into the area of games.

"Are you okay?" Cana asked.

"Yeah," Lucy let out a relieved sigh, leaning back in her seat. "There's just someone here that I don't want to see."

"Oh, who?" Cana lifted an eyebrow with interest.

"His name is—"

"Guys, help me!" Levy cried as she held a box of pizza while trying to hold a cardboard box that contained cups of soda.

"You should have asked for help earlier!" Lucy said, sliding the pizza box from Levy's arms.

"Sorry," Levy muttered as she plopped into her seat with exhaustion. "Who knew pizza boxes were so heavy?"

"They're not," Cana responded. "You're just not strong enough."

"Hey," Levy took a hold of the box. "I paid for this box and I have the right to say who can eat it or not."

"Sorry," Cana apologized immediately. "I didn't mean it."

"Levy-chan can be scary sometimes," Lucy giggled.

"That's right," Levy nodded as she opened the box to reveal a delicious pepperoni pizza.

After moaning over how tasty the pizza was, the girls leaned back in their chairs with content.

"What should we do now? We don't have much money left," Cana asked.

"Let's go to Lu-chan's house for a while," Levy proposed.

"It's not clean," Lucy blurted out.

"There's only one person living in your apartment, and that's you," Cana narrowed her eyes. "How messy can you get? I'm sure it's not that bad."

"You'd be surprised," Lucy laughed nervously.

Just this morning, she had woken up to find crumbs left by Natsu all over the floor.

Happy had helped her clean it—by eating it, of course—but she didn't have time to clean it all. If Cana and Levy were to visit her apartment, they'd surely be grossed out.

Levy pursued her lips in thought then her eyes widened seconds later.

"Is that Erza?" she lifted a finger to the entrance of the arcade.

"Oh, it is," Cana said as she twisted around in her seat to check.

"Should we go to her and say hi?" Lucy inquired.

Though as soon as Lucy asked, Erza's eyes landed on the trio. With a smile, she strode to her friends.

"Hey, guys," Erza greeted.

"What are you doing here?" Levy sipped her soda while asking.

"I came here to meet some old friends and catch up," Erza responded.

"Let's meet them," Cana rose from her seat, inviting herself.

"Can we?" Lucy asked just to make sure.

Erza glanced over her shoulder then turned back to her friends.

"I guess they won't mind," she shrugged, beckoning them to follow her.

Tossing the empty pizza box in the trash, the girls trailed behind Erza through the arcade games.

With each step Lucy took, she looked everywhere for a pink head. She needed to know where Natsu was to save herself from any trouble.

"Hey, Erza, play me on this game right now!" a voice called out, instantly creating a shiver run through Lucy.

"Wait, let me introduce you guys to my friends," Erza spoke, stepping aside to reveal the girls.

Right away, Lucy's eyes connected to the boy that caused her shiver.

"Oh, Lucy," Gray smiled at the blonde. "It's great to see you again."

"You two know each other?" Erza raised a brow.

"I bumped into him in the hallway once," Lucy explained with warm cheeks at the memory.

"It was pretty romantic," Levy snickered, receiving an elbow jab by Lucy. "I'm Levy, by the way."

"Nice tattoo," Cana complimented the other boy standing beside Gray.

"Thanks," the bluenette replied. "I'm Jellal."

Since the greetings were done, Lucy turned around to scan the arcade. She felt vulnerable knowing that somewhere in this arcade was her obnoxious roommate.

"Who are you looking for?" a voice floated into her ear, causing her to jump.

"Don't scare me like that!" Lucy shouted, spinning around with a frown.

"Wait," she paused, staring at the grinning boy. "You're…"

"I'm Natsu," he replied.

"He's the one that was with Gray when you bumped into him that day," Levy reminded.

"T-That's right," Lucy stuttered. "It's nice to see you again."

"You too," he nodded with the same grin.

To the group, Lucy and Natsu were solely strangers. So they had no choice but to play the role.

"Let's go play some games, shall we?" Jellal told the group.

"Oh," Cana spoke, doing a small cough.

"We don't have money," Lucy finished for her. She could hear Natsu scoff beside her and when nobody was looking, she sent him a glare.

"I can give you some," Gray offered, digging into his pocket.

"No, that's okay!" Levy waved her hands in the air. "We'll watch."

"Well, okay," Jellal shrugged.

The group that was now a group of seven ambled throughout the arcade, stopping at several games.

"Erza is amazing," Levy said completely dumbstruck.

"She's beating everyone," Cana said with the same expression as Levy.

"Except me," Jellal smiled smugly.

"If I don't beat you in one of these games, I'll allow you to be the president of student council for a week," Erza challenged.

"Are you serious?" Jellal inquired.

Erza nodded. "Let's go find a game now."

Lucy watched with a smile as Erza and Jellal wandered off from the group in search for a game. She could feel their friendship radiating from where she was standing.

"Hey," Natsu nudged her with his elbow. "I bet I can beat you in skee ball."

"Oh, no you can't," Lucy retorted.

"Come on," he smirked as he began to walk to the skee ball machines.

"I want to play, too," Levy pouted as she watched Lucy and Natsu reach the long tables.

"Here," Gray responded, leaning down to one of the tables and inserting several coins.

Natsu mirrored his movements, inserting three coins in Lucy's machine.

"You can pay me back by paying a bit of my half of the rent," Natsu muttered.

"Fine," Lucy mumbled back, knowing she had no way of getting out of it now since her skee ball machine was already lighting up.

The baseball-sized balls began tumbling down to Lucy, waiting for her to pick them up. She held the ball while waiting for Natsu's machine to light up.

"And go!" Natsu commenced the battle, rolling his ball up the long ramp.

"Go, Lu-chan!" Levy cheered as she watched them—her skee ball game already forgotten.

Lucy couldn't believe how hard she was trying to beat Natsu until she had one ball left in the slot open for her.

She didn't dare to look at the score. It would only make her anxious.

"Don't mess up," Natsu taunted after noticing they both had one ball left.

"Thanks for the encouragement," Lucy replied with a smile as she turned back to the game.

Her eyes focused on the hole that was worth the most amount of points. With a steady breath, she rolled her ball with as much precision she could manage.

"Not bad," Natsu complimented when Lucy's ball entered the hundred point hole.

"Can you do better?" Lucy asked.

"Of course I can," he grinned, looking at the holes for several seconds.

There were no steady breaths involved as Natsu casually rolled his ball up the ramp. Lucy's jaw dropped when it landed in the hundred point hole as if that was its only home.

"The score is so close!" Levy groaned, throwing her hands in the air.

Lucy quickly looked up at their scores, her heart pounding in her chest. When she compared the scores, she pressed her lips in a tight line.

"I lost," Natsu spoke.

"I won," Lucy breathed out.

"Let's do a rematch right now!" he demanded, shoving his hand in his pocket to take out more coins.

"No way," she shook her head with a laugh. "I already won."

"But—"

"I can't believe Flame-brain lost to a girl," Gray sneered.

"By ten points, Ice Princess," Natsu retorted.

"Some people just aren't meant for winning, Natsu," Cana shrugged, clearly provoking him.

"Maybe next time you'll win," Levy chimed in.

"Whatever," he rolled his eyes. "I'm going to go eat something."

"Is he mad?" Lucy questioned as her eyes followed Natsu striding away.

"He probably already forgot about his loss," Gray assured.

Lucy stifled a laugh; she wouldn't doubt it.

"You two seem really close," he remarked.

"No way," she waved a hand to dismiss it. "There's just something about Natsu that makes me want to beat him."

"Really?" he muttered, asking more to himself.

"Lu-chan, Erza and Jellal are tied!" Levy shouted. "Come and look!"

Lucy and Gray eagerly stepped towards the game Erza and Jellal were playing. They definitely did not want to miss this.

After about 20 minutes, Erza had somehow beaten Jellal. Though nobody had witnessed it since everyone had become uninterested after just five minutes.

"The arcade is closing in ten minutes," a voice sounded throughout the arcade.

"That's our cue," Gray spoke, pushing himself off the wall he was leaning against.

"Where's Natsu?" Erza asked.

"He's probably still eating something," Lucy predicted.

And her prediction was correct. As the group strolled to the eating area, they found Natsu finishing a pizza slice.

"Have you been eating this _entire_ time?!" Levy exclaimed.

"How long has it been?" Natsu asked.

"Half an hour," Cana answered with a frown.

Natsu simply nodded, not bothering to reply back.

"Let's go, Natsu," Lucy said.

"But I'm not done eating," he responded.

"Then just take the leftovers home," she rolled her eyes.

As the sentence left her mouth, she froze.

"I don't even want to think about how much food is stuffed into Natsu's fridge," Gray grimaced.

"Probably a lot," Levy said.

Lucy let out a soft sigh of relief when Erza directed the conversation elsewhere.

"The arcade is closing in five minutes," the same voice sounded throughout the arcade again.

"I'm getting up!" Natsu proclaimed after six glares were directed at him.

The group exited the arcade, laughing as they recalled how ridiculous Natsu looked when playing a game with Gray.

It was strange to all of them that despite everyone meeting each other just three hours ago, they were speaking as if it had been three years. But they didn't complain about it.

"See you guys in class," Erza began to wave goodbye.

"Are we all going to be in the same class?" Levy asked with large eyes.

"Somehow," Jellal answered, looking at Erza. "I didn't think she could do it, actually."

"Never underestimate the president," Erza responded with a sly smile.

"I'm going this way," Gray spoke, pointing behind him. "See you guys in class then."

"See you guys in class!" Levy repeated with a grin. It was clear she enjoyed saying it.

Once everyone had said it, the group separated. And of course, Natsu and Lucy walked in the same direction.

"So we're going to be in the same class," Lucy stated, looking at the twinkling stars above them as she spoke.

"I look forward to it," Natsu replied.

"Me too," she smiled, not taking her eyes off the dark sky. Then after a while, she looked at him.

"Why does Gray call you Flame-brain?" she inquired.

"Hot sauce," he answered plainly.

"You two are weird," she scoffed.

Their matching footsteps were the only noises on the street as they headed towards their apartment.

"Are you doing anything over the break?" he asked to stop the silence.

"I think I'm going out with my friends somewhere," she answered. "What about you?"

"Gray will probably want to come over and play some games," he revealed.

"Don't make a mess," she ordered.

"No promises," he chuckled.

He glanced over his shoulder and Lucy couldn't help but do the same.

"What were you looking at?" she questioned.

"What if someone is watching us right now?" he asked with complete seriousness.

"Don't say things like that!" she exclaimed, smacking his shoulder.

A smile spread across Natsu's face as he gained the reaction he wanted. Then when the apartment complex came into view, he took a deep breath.

"Last one home has to clean up the food I dropped on the floor last night!" he hastily spoke, already dashing towards the apartment.

Lucy's mouth fell as she felt herself chasing after him, gripping onto his shirt to keep him back.

Though both of their hard work was in vain because neither of them had to clean it up. They had surprisingly received some help while they were out.

"I guess Happy is a _little_ helpful," Lucy muttered when they entered their apartment to find out that Happy had eaten all the crumbs.

Lucy couldn't be mad even if she wanted to be as she watched Natsu give Happy miniature high-fives on his paws.

She could feel that the next two weeks were surely going to be interesting.


	6. Chapter 6

**I love the last line of this chapter so much, it's probably unhealthy.**

**It's strange that we're only on chapter 6 yet I feel like I started this fanfic ages ago.**

**I'm honestly still so surprised at how much everyone is liking this fanfic and it makes me so happy. **

**Thank you guys soso much for reading. :-)**

**There will be some drama next chapter, so look forward to that!**

**Enjoy this chapter~**

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><p>"Lucy, wake up!" Natsu shouted, loudly knocking on her bedroom door.<p>

Lucy listened to the knocks with her eyes closed, taking a deep breath. With how bright her eyelids were, it was definitely early in the morning.

When Natsu never took a break from knocking, Lucy forced herself out of her comfortable bed.

"What do you want, Natsu?" she whined at her door.

"You overslept," Natsu responded plainly.

Lucy's eyes widened when they landed on Natsu's school uniform.

"Again?!" she exclaimed, doing as she did several days ago—whirling around and slamming the door.

"Yep, again," he answered as she scrambled all across her room to put on her uniform.

Though her uniform was wrinkled, she snatched her schoolbag and flung open the door.

"Levy is going to kill me for being late. I better text her—"

She abruptly stopped walking after taking note of what time it was on her phone. She blinked a couple of times just to make sure.

"Natsu," Lucy spoke shortly, slowly lifting her head from her phone.

"Yes?" he asked, lazily shuffling to the couch and plopping down on it.

"It's Saturday!" she screamed.

"Really?" he raised his phone in the air to check the time. "Oh, you're right. I guess my eyes were playing tricks on me."

Lucy didn't need to see his face; she knew he was grinning from ear to ear.

"You're not getting any breakfast today," she stated through gritted teeth. She stomped back into her room, not paying a speck of attention to Natsu's protests.

"That'll show him," she huffed as she went back to wearing her pajamas and returning to bed.

Pulling the covers over her head to block out the light, she shut her eyes.

She couldn't tell if she had slept any but her heavy eyes told her otherwise. Lucy blinked several times and after counting to ten, she rose from her bed.

Creaking open her door, she exited the room. The apartment was awfully silent considering that it was nearly eleven in the morning.

Her stomach growled while walking to the bathroom. She knew she wanted something delicious to start off her first day of break right.

"I'm not going to wake him up," she told herself in her head after glancing at Natsu's sleeping body on the couch. She was still a bit upset with the prank he did.

Despite telling herself that, she found herself moving around louder than usual so he would hear. She knew he would be up all night if he slept in any longer.

"You sound like an elephant, Luce," he groaned, putting a hand over his eyes as if he was forcing his eyes toremain closed.

"Don't call me that," she narrowed her eyes at him from the kitchen.

"But elephants are awesome sometimes," he responded. He removed his hand from his eyes to stare up at the ceiling.

"That wasn't what I was referring to," she muttered, returning to making her breakfast.

When it was done, she placed her food on the table to begin eating.

"Where's my portion?" Natsu asked as he walked to the kitchen, his nose leading him.

"I told you, didn't I?" she smirked. "You're not getting any breakfast today."

"You were serious?" he inquired with large eyes.

"That's right," she nodded, purposely humming softly to herself as she ate.

"You're breaking our deal," he spoke as he realized.

"What are you talking about?" she raised an eyebrow.

"You can only use the bathroom as long as you make me breakfast every day," he stated.

"Then I won't use the bathroom today," she shrugged as she easily found a solution.

"Really?" he smirked.

"Really," she responded, accepting the challenge floating in between them.

"Okay," he replied with a quick nod.

"Okay," she returned the nod.

"Stop repeating what I'm saying," he said while entering the kitchen to find something to eat.

"Stop repeating what _I'm _saying," she retorted simply to push his buttons. She pressed her lips in a thin line to prevent a laugh from escaping.

"Two can play at this game, Luce," he told her as he gave her forehead a poke when walking past her to the living room.

"I told you to stop calling me that!" she countered.

"But I didn't call you an elephant," Natsu's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Lucy sighed, not bothering to reason with the boy. She couldn't tell if he was teasing her or not, and she didn't care enough to find out.

Being on break made the teenagers realize how much free time there was now. One hour felt like one year to them.

Natsu left sometime in the afternoon to hang out with Gray, leaving Lucy all by herself.

"Happy will tell me if you used the bathroom or not," Natsu warned before he left.

"I'm not going to use it," she rolled her eyes, realizing several minutes later that he wasn't joking when Happy's eyes began to follow her much more than usual.

Though she loved how relaxing her apartment was, she had been lying down so much her back began to ache. When she heard her phone ring, she felt like she was being saved from boredom.

"What's up, Levy-chan?" Lucy spoke into her phone, roaming around the apartment.

"My parents want me to make something tonight for dinner. Can you help me buy the ingredients?" Levy asked.

"Okay!" Lucy nodded eagerly, not noticing how desperate she actually was to get out of the apartment.

"Thanks, Lu-chan! Let's meet up at the store by your house!" Levy arranged.

"See you there," Lucy disconnected the call and spun around to rush into her room.

When she was dressed, she quickly slipped on her shoes and exited her apartment. The spring air had never felt so fresh before.

As she stepped down the stairs, she was met with Natsu hiking up them.

"Where are you going?" Natsu inquired as their steps slowed down in the middle of the metal staircase.

"I'm going to help Levy-chan buy some things at the store. I'll be back in time to make dinner," she assured.

Natsu's eyes lit up after Lucy mentioned making dinner.

"See you soon then," he returned going up the stairs.

Walking to the store to meet Levy, Lucy looked up at the sky. The clouds floating across the sky seemed to get darker and darker with each step she took.

It was rare for it to rain in the spring, so she dismissed all her thoughts of any rainfall.

"Hi, Lu-chan!" Levy greeted with a grin as she stood at the front of the store.

"I feel like I haven't seen you in forever," Lucy admitted with a smile as she gave her best friend a short hug.

"I felt the same way," Levy agreed sheepishly.

"What are you making for your parents?" Lucy asked once they entered the store.

"Here's the list," Levy showed her a small piece of paper with scribbled handwriting.

Lucy's eyes widened when they landed on all the ingredients they needed.

"O-Okay," she stammered, contemplating on which aisle to start on first. "Let's start."

After at least an hour, the girls had at last found all the ingredients. They were exhausted after scurrying throughout the entire store.

Yet when Levy had paid for the items, they were placed in a mere three plastic bags. It was hard to believe for the girls _and_ the cashier.

"I'm so excited for dinner now!" Levy cheered, bouncing in her step as they walked to the exit of the store.

"Tell me if it's good or not—"

Lucy paused when they exited the store, gaping at the pouring rain that was silent when they were inside.

"This is the first time it has ever rained on spring break," she stated with disbelief.

"I don't have an umbrella!" Levy exclaimed with large eyes. "Lu-chan, what do we do?"

Lucy opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She had absolutely no idea what to do.

"L-Let's just wait it out," she eventually suggested.

Both of the girls knew the rain wasn't letting up soon when there were two loud rumbles of thunder in less than a minute. It made them jump both times.

"Well, that didn't work," Levy pouted.

Lucy gave out a helpless sigh. She knew she could simply run home since her apartment wasn't too far away, but what about Levy?

"Yo. My boss told me to come out here and help you two. Do you need an umbrella or something?" a gruff voice asked behind the girls.

Lucy and Levy turned around to look at the owner of the voice; both of their breaths hitched.

"Is that a yes or no?" the man's crimson eyes narrowed at them when they were silent. The piercings that were scattered across his face moved with each of his blinks.

"Y-Yes! We don't have an umbrella," Levy stuttered.

"I don't need one," Lucy waved her hands in the air. "I'll only get a little wet if I run home."

"So it's just you?" the intimidating man directed his attention to Levy.

"Yes," Levy nodded quickly.

"Okay, let's go," he nodded his head to the side while opening up his umbrella.

"I'll talk to you later then, Lu-chan," Levy said with a wave, though her eyes were large with alarm.

"Enjoy your dinner," Lucy replied with her own wave as she watched her small best friend stand beside the large man.

"What's your name?" Levy asked, looking up at him since her tied up hair hardly reached his shoulder.

"Gajeel," he responded shortly.

"I'm Levy," was the last thing Lucy was able to hear.

She watched as the two walked away from her. She found their extreme height differences incredibly amusing.

"There's no way she doesn't like him," Lucy giggled to herself, knowing that was the same man who Levy complimented when she first came to the store. Lucy could hear Levy's pounding heart from where she was standing.

Even though Gajeel looked terrifying because of his plethora amount of piercings, Lucy knew Levy would be safe. She didn't know where the feeling came from, but she was certain he meant no harm.

Lucy jumped once again when another thunder sounded throughout the sky.

"Well, here goes," she prepared herself with several deep breaths. She had already calculated how long it would take her to sprint home.

She stared at the ground as she took one step out of the store that covered her, but she was instantly pushed back by two warm hands.

"Were you seriously going to run home with all this rain?" Natsu asked incredulously.

"What are you doing here?" Lucy's eyes widened in surprise.

"I'm saving you, of course," he responded, shaking the umbrella above him for emphasis.

"I would have been fine if I ran home," she muttered when she reluctantly joined him under the umbrella.

"Do you want to try running home without an umbrella then?" he smirked.

She had no time to reply when Natsu shifted the umbrella away from her, causing her to feel freezing raindrops splash across her arm.

"That's cold!" she exclaimed, shifting the umbrella back to cover her.

"You're standing too far away," he stated while reaching over her shoulder and moving her closer to him.

Lucy was about to protest that she was fine, but the loud thunder interrupted her.

"Sorry," she squeaked.

"Are you afraid of thunder?" Natsu looked at her with amusement.

"Of course not!" she scoffed. "Thunder doesn't scare me at all—"

"What were you saying?" he smirked once again when there was another boom, causing her to jump again.

"So what if I'm afraid of thunder?" she mumbled, gaining a chuckle from him.

Lucy felt slightly uncomfortable when her shoulder brushed against Natsu's arm several times, but she decided not to say anything. She didn't want to make it any more awkward.

She was grateful when they reached their apartment. Though it was difficult to go up the stairs simultaneously, the two teenagers managed to reach the door.

"Go take a shower before you get sick," Natsu ordered.

"I'm not allowed to use the bathroom, remember?" Lucy remarked.

Natsu froze as he thought about the situation; Lucy enjoyed looking at his conflicted expression.

"Fine," he groaned. "Use the bathroom."

"Okay," she replied shortly. After getting some dry clothes, she shuffled to the bathroom.

"Oh, I forgot to mention. I rarely get sick," Lucy spoke slyly before shutting the bathroom door behind her.

With a triumphant smile, she stepped in the shower.

Lucy was winning whatever game they had somehow created; she had no intention of losing.

Yet neither did Natsu.

"I'll help you with that," he offered once dinner was made.

"Oh, thanks," Lucy smiled as he moved the food to the table.

"Any time," he replied.

"Why are you being so nice?" she questioned, sitting down in her seat to begin eating.

"No reason," he shrugged as he began to drizzle his infamous hot sauce on his food.

"Weirdo," she scoffed.

She happily chewed her food but she immediately stopped.

"What did you do to my food?!" she shouted, nearly breathing out fire.

"I _might_ have dropped some hot sauce in your food," he answered with a twinkle in his eye.

"Why would you do that?" she inquired breathlessly after chugging her water.

"Two can play at this game," he repeated what he said in the morning with a mischievous grin.

"You're _so_ on," she said, her competitive side feeling stronger than ever.

"These two weeks are going to be great," he grinned.

"Wait," she paused, a thought floating into her mind. "I'm going to an aquarium tomorrow."

Natsu stopped with her as his eyes stared straight into Lucy's.

"W-What?" she asked after they were silent for a while.

"I'm going to the aquarium, too!" he exclaimed.

"_You are?_" she repeated with disbelief.

He nodded with another grin spreading across his lips.

"Let's have fun while we're there," he said, his eyes glinting with something Lucy couldn't see.

"Okay," she responded nervously.

Lucy thought these two weeks were going to be interesting, but now she was quite anxious to see _how_ interesting.

Hopefully, just this once, everything would run smoothly. But in Lucy's perspective, smooth wasn't in Natsu's vocabulary.


	7. Chapter 7

**So how about Fairy Tail chapter 416? What'd you guys think about it? I currently have no heart nor do I have any emotions left. **

**You know Nalu is real when Natsu leaves Lucy a letter and she begins to cry over how lonely she'll be, though. I'm so excited to see what Mashima decides to write!**

**Okay, well on to the fanfic..**

**This chapter is based on the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. I completely recommend looking at their pictures of the Kuroshio Sea Tank. It's absolutely stunning.**

**It's been a while since I chose to end the chapter the way I did. Well, it's a first for this fanfic.. Oh, how I've missed it. **

**Thank you guys for all the reviews, favs, and follows. I really appreciate it. :] **

**Enjoy this chapter, everyone!**

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><p>The second Lucy's eyes opened the next morning, she leaped out of bed. She had dreamt of visiting the aquarium and now she was ecstatic to actually be going.<p>

"You seem happy today," Natsu remarked when listening to Lucy hum as she made breakfast.

"Of course I am," she replied with a smile. "We're going to aquarium today!"

"So what?" he lifted an eyebrow.

"I've never been there before," she explained.

"It's nothing to be _that_ excited over," he scoffed.

"Be quiet," she mumbled, not paying any mind to him.

"Levy-chan are coming over here to pick me up, by the way," she notified.

"Gray is coming here to pick me up, too," Natsu responded.

Lucy's breath stopped as vivid images flashed her mind.

"There's no way they'll come here at the same time, right?" she asked nervously.

"We'll see," he smirked at her anxiety.

It wasn't until an hour later when there was a knock on her front door. She sneaked up to the door to look through the peep-hole.

"They're here!" Lucy whispered frantically.

"Go inside already!" she forcefully pushed on Natsu's back so he could go inside his room.

"I'm going, I'm going," he muttered while entering his room and closing the door.

Lucy hurriedly opened the front door, knowing she was taking too long to answer it.

"Hi, guys!" she grinned at her friends as they stood at her doorstep.

"I still love this place, Lu-chan," Levy sighed happily, entering the apartment.

"You're still very clean," Erza observed as she scanned the spotless apartment.

"Of course," Lucy nodded like she didn't just clean everything two minutes ago.

"Do you have any food?" Cana asked, inviting herself into the fridge. "Whoa, there's a lot of food in here."

"I like to stock up," Lucy bluffed.

"Cana, hurry up and eat," Levy whined. "I want to go to the aquarium already."

"Me too," Erza agreed.

"Your fridge looks like there are two people living here," Cana remarked when she settled for a simple mozzarella cheese stick.

"No way," Lucy waved her hand. "I'm the only one here."

"You can't forget about Happy!" Levy reminded, scooping down and picking up the blue cat.

"Happy is the same color as your hair," Erza stated with an amused look.

"Hey," Levy frowned. "My hair is darker than his!"

"I can't tell if I'm looking at Happy or Levy's hair," Cana snickered.

"Where did Levy-chan's hair go?" Lucy played along.

"Can we just go to the aquarium?" Levy crossed her arms in front of her unhappily after releasing Happy.

"Let's go," Lucy giggled as she led her friends out of her apartment. She could hear Natsu's door creaking open when she closed the front door.

"I've never been to the aquarium before," Erza confessed while they walked together.

"Neither have I," Lucy and Levy admitted.

"Do you guys _ever_ go out?" Cana raised an eyebrow.

Lucy didn't pay too much attention to the retort Levy was saying because a dark head caught her attention.

Gray was walking in the direction of the apartment. Beside him, walked a white-haired girl with bright cerulean eyes.

Lucy was relieved Gray didn't come at the same time as her friends, but her stomach churned at the thought of the girl being inside the apartment.

But she easily brushed them off; she had nothing to do with them.

"I'm so excited to see all the fish," Levy clapped in excitement.

"You've said that four times already," Cana rolled her eyes.

"You're lying if you say you're not excited either," Lucy responded.

"We're here," Erza announced.

Laughter and streaming water sounded out into the air from the open doors of the aquarium. The girls eagerly stepped inside to buy a ticket to enter.

To make things easier, the girls went for the automatic ticket machine. Erza did all the work as Levy raved at how clear the water was from the tanks she could see.

"Erza?" a voice asked behind the girls. They simultaneously turned around to see who it was.

"Hey, Jellal. What are you doing here?" Erza greeted with a smile.

"Natsu and Gray wanted to hang out here," Jellal answered with his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Weird," Cana mumbled.

"Why don't we all hang out again then?" Levy suggested.

Lucy desperately wanted to object the idea, but the brightness of Levy's eyes made her stay quiet.

"Is it alright if we do?" Erza questioned.

"They won't care," Jellal shrugged. "The tickets are cheaper if we're in a group, anyway."

"Great!" Levy cheered.

"They should be here soon," he glanced at his watch. "But knowing them, they'll probably be late."

A question about the girl Lucy saw with Gray was on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed it back. It'd be smarter just to wait.

Several minutes later, Gray and Natsu entered the aquarium with a white-haired stranger trailing behind them.

"Hey, Lucy," Gray immediately greeted with a smile.

"Hey, Gray," Lucy responded with a wave. She didn't bother to greet Natsu.

"Hi, Erza! Long time no see!" the stranger gave Erza a hug.

"How have you been, Lisanna?" Erza returned the hug.

"I never knew how popular Erza was," Levy secretly whispered to Lucy.

"It seems like she knows everyone," Lucy nodded with her own whisper.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Lisanna apologized when she released Erza and noticed the other girls. "I'm Lisanna."

"I've seen you before," Cana spoke with a frown. "Is your sister Mirajane?"

Lisanna nodded. "Do you know her?"

"I go drinking a lot where she works," Cana answered with a grin.

"I'm Levy," she greeted, giving Lisanna a smile.

"I'm Lucy," she introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you two!" Lisanna smiled cheerfully, her short hair bobbing all over the place.

Lucy and Levy returned the smile; they could tell they were going to get along well.

"So there's eight of us," Erza stated as she turned back to the ticket machine. Jellal stood beside her to watch the screen.

"We're going as a group?" Natsu inquired.

"Do you have a problem?" Erza glared over her shoulder.

Though the glare wasn't directed at her, a shiver ran through Lucy's body. It seemed like there was a shiver running through everyone but Jellal.

"Not anymore," Natsu replied quickly.

Finally, the tickets were purchased and the group of eight ambled into the aquarium. Lucy's heart pumped with anticipation.

"Look at all the fish!" Levy exclaimed.

"There's so many," Lucy breathed out, not knowing where to look.

"This is amazing," Cana chimed in breathlessly.

The girls couldn't get enough of the immense amount of fish swimming around in the tanks. It was as if with each blink, a new fish entered the tank.

"Looks like you're having fun," Gray viewed Lucy as she peered into the tank.

"How can you not have fun looking at all these fish?" Lucy quipped, glancing at Gray. The water reflected off of their eyes.

"They're just fish," he shrugged. "There's nothing cool about them."

Lucy's jaw dropped with surprise.

"Look at that shark!" she pointed at the large shark swimming in front of them.

"What about it?" he raised an eyebrow.

"You don't find that cool?" her mouth remained wide open.

"Not really," he scratched the back of his head.

Lucy couldn't believe what she was hearing. She scanned the area and when her eyes fell onto a poster, she strode to it.

"Let's go to this," she commanded.

"A whale show?" Gray asked.

"Yes," she nodded. "There's no way you can't find this cool."

Gray's eyes studied Lucy with amusement.

"Everyone, Gray and I are going to go to this whale show," Lucy declared to her friends.

"I want to go!" Levy shouted.

"Me too," Erza agreed.

"Let's all go then," Gray stated. "But I'm sitting next to Lucy."

"Why would you want to sit next to her?" Natsu scoffed.

"Because I think she's cool," Gray replied, earning a small laugh from Lucy.

"And soon you'll find this aquarium cool," she grinned while they started to walk to the show that began in fifteen minutes.

"Why aren't you moving, Natsu? Come on," Lisanna waved her hand to beckon Natsu.

"S-Sorry," he blinked out of his trance.

The show was outside and nearly all the seats were filled. The only empty row was the very front.

Lucy was determined to make Gray impressed about the aquarium. She absolutely could not wait for the show, but the person who sat on her left side made her want the show to end already so they could leave.

"Why are you sitting next to me?" she asked under her breath.

"Do you think I want to be?" Natsu inquired.

Their shoulders bumped against each other every so often, so she scooted closer to Gray. She didn't mind his shoulder too much.

"It's starting!" Levy proclaimed.

Lucy clapped once the show began and Gray couldn't help but join when seeing how excited the blonde was.

"Are you impressed?" Lucy asked eagerly each time a whale did a trick.

"I've seen better," he responded plainly.

"Have you ever seen a whale before?" Natsu inquired eventually, leaning over to look at Gray.

"Why does it matter, Flame-breath?" Gray's eyes narrowed, leaning over as well.

All Lucy could do was sit still as the boys started to insult each other. When she could see both Gray and Natsu's face in front of her, she took a deep breath.

"You two are suffocating Lucy!" Lisanna yelled as she pulled Natsu's shoulder back.

"Thanks, Lisanna," Lucy breathed out in relief. She was glad she didn't have to do the shouting.

"And now time for the last trick of the show!" the announcer revealed, their voice echoing throughout the entire area.

"I-It's over?" Lucy asked with disbelief.

"That's what she said," Natsu responded with an eye roll.

"But Gray hasn't been impressed yet!" she exclaimed, turning to Gray.

Gray looked at her blankly, surprised at how persistent she was being with him. He oddly enough admired her for it.

"Maybe next time—"

Gray was instantly cut off as freezing water was splashed on him. Everyone that sat on the right side of him was soaked from the water due to the whales.

Lucy's eyes widened in surprised while Natsu burst out laughing. Gray's head was withdrawn as his hair dripped with water.

"Gray?" Lucy squeaked. "The water is ice cold. Are you okay?"

"Can the whales do that again?" Gray asked eagerly, leaning forward in his seat.

"W-What?" Lucy blurted out.

Gray's eyes became large as he realized what he had asked. He cleared his throat and leaned back to regain his composure.

"N-Never mind," he stuttered.

"Are you impressed?" she questioned with a smiling spreading across her lips.

"Of course not!" he shook his head, causing water droplets to land on Lucy.

"You are!" she proclaimed happily.

"Whatever," he mumbled while standing up. Lucy didn't notice the show had ended until he extended his hand out to her.

"Are you going to get up?" he inquired, shaking his hand for Lucy to grab it.

"Lucy can get up by herself," Natsu stated with a hint of annoyance.

"Natsu," Lisanna whispered.

"It's fine," Lucy assured. "He's probably jealous that I'm paying more attention to Gray."

She intended it to be a joke, but when she got up on her own and saw the look in Natsu's face, she knew Natsu didn't take it as one.

"I'm just kidding—"

"Let's go, Lisanna," Natsu spoke as he turned around and walked out of the row they were in.

Lucy tilted her head to the side in confusion, but knowing that he was with Lisanna told her he'd be alright.

"Aren't you cold?" she asked Gray as she took a look at his damp clothes.

"The cold doesn't bother me," he replied with a shrug.

"Are you sure you're not going to get sick or anything?" she double checked, just in case.

"If I get sick, I'm counting on you to bring my health back," he responded as he started to exit the row, his lips curving up into a small smile.

"I guess I don't have a choice," she sighed. "Where is everyone?"

"I can't believe they left us," Gray said while they walked together back into the aquarium.

"What should we do?" she asked, her eyes scanning the area.

"Let's go look at the fish," he proposed. He didn't leave her much of a choice since he had already started to walk towards the tanks.

"Whoa," Lucy whispered when they met up with a tank that took up the entire wall.

"It's the second largest tank in the world," Gray informed as he observed the tank with her.

"There's _four_ whale sharks," she continued to whisper, her legs urging her to get a closer look.

Lucy had to tilt her head up to look at the whale sharks swimming above her. She had never been this close to something so stunning before.

"Amazing," she spoke with mesmerized eyes. The sound of the trickling water was utterly calming.

"Lu-chan!" Levy's voice echoed throughout the aquarium.

Lucy spun around to find Levy rushing towards her with worry painted all over his face.

"Where did you go?!" Levy asked breathlessly. "I was so scared something happened to you!"

"Sorry," she apologized while comforting her worried best friend.

The rest of the group joined Lucy and Gray several seconds later. They stood in a circle as they spoke.

"What are we going to do now?" Cana required. "I'm beat."

"Yeah, me too," Natsu agreed with a yawn.

"Then let's call it a day," Jellal stated.

"Sounds good to me," Gray said, looking at Natsu. "Mind if I come over for a while?"

"Do what you want, Ice Princess," Natsu shrugged while leaving the group.

"See you later, Lucy," Gray nodded quickly as he went to catch up with him.

It wasn't long until the group scattered into various directions.

Lucy's legs were quite tired from all the walking she had done today, but since Gray was going to the apartment, she forced herself to walk Levy home.

"That was fun, wasn't it, Lu-chan?" Levy sighed with delight.

"I want to do it again," Lucy admitted.

"Let's go again during the summer," Levy replied.

"Deal," Lucy grinned.

"Let's hang out again soon!" Levy waved from her door when they reached her home.

"Of course!" she nodded, watching Levy enter her house.

"What do I do now?" she muttered while strolling to her apartment.

She reluctantly pulled out her phone and called the number she forbade herself to call unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Hey, Natsu," Lucy spoke into her phone. "Is Gray still there?"

"He is," Natsu answered plainly.

Lucy sighed, conflicted on what to do. She could go to the library, but all she wanted to do was lie down on her bed at home.

Natsu and Lucy were silent on the call, but he spoke up after a while.

"Gray is leaving now," he revealed.

"Really?!" Lucy asked with relief. "Okay, thanks."

She quickly hung up on the call.

Normally, Natsu would make fun of being kicked out of the apartment, but he was uncharacteristically quiet. It made her uncomfortable.

Lucy then remembered the look on his face when she made the joke about him and Gray.

"I should apologize to him," she told herself, already rehearsing her apology.

There was no way she was going to fight with her roommate that was slowly becoming her friend.

When Lucy could easily recite her apology, she hiked up the stairs to her apartment. She hastily unlocked the door and stepped inside.

"Hey, Natsu, can I talk to you for a second—"

Lucy froze when her eyes met with the person in front of her. She opened her mouth slowly, not believing what she was seeing.

"Gray, what are you still doing here?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Every time I'm about to write my A/N I just blank completely and I have no idea what to say. asfghjklh**

**How are you guys? I hope everyone had a good day today. :] **

**This chapter was fun to write. Things are going to get good next chapter, though! **

**Expect cliffhangers, because I like to do those. C: **

**Thank you for reading~ It's crazy how many follows and favs this story has gotten after just 8 chapters. You guys are great.**

**And 350 reviews in 8 chapters? That's insane. Thank you so much. **

**I hope everyone enjoys this chapter! See you next Wednesday! **

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><p>Lucy, Natsu, and Gray stiffly stood in front of each other, staring at each other blankly.<p>

Lucy's mouth remained halfway open as she gaped at Gray's startled dark blue eyes. She hoped that if she stayed frozen like she was, she'd disappear.

"What do you mean, 'What am I still doing here'?" Gray inquired.

"W-What I meant was," Lucy stammered as if she was blatantly grabbing words out of the air.

"How did you unlock Natsu's door?" Gray's eyes narrowed.

"Well, you see—"

"Lucy and I are living together," Natsu revealed bluntly with his arms crossed.

"_You're what?_" Gray's eyes widened.

"Natsu, what are you saying?" Lucy hissed, giving him a hard stare.

"That girl," Natsu pointed a finger to Lucy, "and I are living together."

"Lucy, is this true?" Gray asked with disbelief.

Lucy held her breath; there was no possible way of her lying her way out. Her secret was out.

"It's true," she averted her gaze to the floor. "Natsu and I are living together."

"How did this even happen?" Gray looked at Natsu and Lucy incredulously.

"Long story short, there weren't any apartments left and our landlord gave both of us this one," Lucy explained.

"You do know if our school finds out that two students are living together, you'll be in major trouble, right?" Gray spoke.

"What?" she gasped.

"Didn't you know that?" Natsu raised an eyebrow.

"Obviously I didn't!" she shouted. "If I did, I wouldn't have moved in with you!"

"We need to get Lucy a new apartment," Gray stated.

"What?" Natsu and Lucy said at the same time.

"Knowing that you're living with _him_ leaves a bad taste in my mouth," Gray shook his head in disapproval.

Lucy was clueless on what to say. Sure, living by herself in a new apartment sounded nice, but somewhere inside of her she didn't want to leave.

These few weeks she spent with Natsu were probably the best times in her life.

"I don't want Lucy to leave," Natsu replied plainly.

"I don't want to leave either," Lucy agreed in a whisper.

Gray gave Natsu and Lucy a strange look. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"I-It's not bad living with him," Lucy confessed. "We have boundaries."

She trotted over to the middle of the apartment and showed where the invisible line was.

"See?" she presented. "I can't go on Natsu's side and Natsu can't go on mine."

"That was a smart thing to do," Gray complimented. "Who knows what Natsu would do if that line didn't exist."

"It was actually _my _idea," Natsu spoke with an eye roll.

"He's telling the truth," Lucy muttered.

"I didn't know what type of girl Lucy was when I first met her, so I wanted Happy and I to be safe," Natsu shrugged.

"Hey!" she frowned.

Gray looked at Lucy for a while and when he looked away, a sigh left his lips.

"Are you going to tell anyone?" Lucy eyed him nervously, feeling as if he held her fate in his hands.

"I won't say anything on one condition," Gray negotiated.

"What's the condition?" Lucy asked, glancing at Natsu and seeing an uninterested expression across his face. It irritated her.

"I'm going to come here once a week to see if everything is okay," he said.

"That's it?" Lucy raised an eyebrow at how simple the condition was.

"That's it," he nodded.

"Okay then," she nodded with him. "We'll let you come over once a week."

"You just want to come here for Lucy's dinner, don't you?" Natsu accused.

"You make dinner for Natsu?" Gray inquired.

"Y-Yes," Lucy admitted shamefully.

"I look forward to eating your dinners once a week then," his lips curved to a slight smile.

Lucy returned the smile, being able to hear a groan of disgust from Natsu.

"What is wrong with you?" she furrowed her eyebrows at Natsu. "Why do you act like that when I talk to Gray?"

"Act like what?" he furrowed his eyebrows back.

"Rude," she said. "You're being rude."

"It's just your imagination," he responded.

The air was tense, the three of them could feel it.

"Well, I guess I'll be going now," Gray awkwardly interrupted the silence.

"I'll walk you out," Natsu muttered, beating Lucy to it.

"See you later, Lucy," he nodded.

"Bye, Gray," she waved.

As Natsu and Gray left the apartment, Lucy viewed the closed door with a vacant expression.

She felt furious with how Natsu was acting, but simultaneously, she wanted to apologize for the joke she made at the aquarium.

"Whatever," she sighed as she entered her room and slammed the door.

When Natsu returned, Lucy stayed silent in her room, listening to him play his video game.

"Is he mad?" Lucy asked herself several times.

She hated the way Natsu reacted when she talked to Gray, but she hated fighting with him even more.

Preparing herself with steady breaths, she peeked her head out of her room.

"Lucy, I'm hungry," Natsu twisted around from the couch and looked at her.

"What do you want to eat?" she asked smoothly, trotting to the kitchen.

"Something spicy," he answered.

"Of course," she smiled slightly.

Lucy made what she could with the ingredients that were in the kitchen. Calling Natsu over to the table, she nibbled on their dinner silently.

"Why are you so quiet?" he smirked, giving her leg under the table a nudge.

"I'm sorry for making you mad," she blurted out.

"Mad?" he repeated, his eyes withdrawn to his food. "I wasn't mad."

"Were you annoyed?" she asked.

"Ice Princess annoys me," he mumbled.

"Why?" she dared herself to ask.

"Gray thinks he can get anybody he wants," Natsu revealed hesitantly. "Once he gets who he wants, he gets bored in a day or two and dumps them."

"What?" Lucy looked at him with bewilderment.

"That's Popsicle Princess for you," he stated.

It was quiet until Lucy's giggles morphed into a laughing fit.

"Popsicle Princess?!" she echoed in-between her laughs. "You have the weirdest names for Gray!"

"I have a list," he replied with a hint of pride.

"Tell me them!" she commanded breathlessly, trying to control her laughs.

"There's Ice Princess, Popsicle Princess, Droopy Eyes," he listed off his fingers.

By the time he had named all the nicknames he had created for Gray, Lucy had nearly fallen off her chair from laughter. Her stomach felt sore.

Natsu viewed Lucy with amusement, watching her inhale deeply to regain her breath only to lose her breath once again to resume laughing.

Her cheeks were flushed after she could eventually control herself.

"I will not let that happen," she declared. "Gray won't ever have a chance to do that to me."

The subject had already slipped from Natsu's mind, but he was reminded when Lucy began to speak as if she was reciting a speech.

"Just be careful around Gray," Natsu warned after she was finished, taking a hold of their plates and setting them in the sink.

"Thanks for worrying about me," she grinned.

"Whatever," he scoffed, passing by her to return to the living room.

Lucy felt warmth flood up inside of her. Whether she liked it or not, she was comforted by Natsu looking out for her.

With that, she sat beside him on the couch with a journal in her lap and aimlessly wrote what came to her mind. She was content that they were back to normal now.

If this was how her spring break was going to be like for the next week, she was more than happy to spend it with Natsu.

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><p>"Natsu, stop! I can't breathe!" Lucy giggled as he poked her sides left and right.<p>

"This is what happens when you try to hide my hot sauce from me," he stated as he continued to steal in several more pokes.

"I won't do it again!" she promised as she struggled to run away from him.

Natsu paid no attention to her protests. What made him finally stop was the tune of Lucy's ringing phone.

"Stay," she commanded Natsu as if she was talking to a dog. With light steps, she scurried to answer her phone.

Her eyes widened when she read the caller ID. It had been a few days since they had last called.

"Hey, Mom," Lucy smiled into her phone.

"How is your spring break going, dear?" Lucy's mother, Layla, asked.

"It's a lot of fun!" she replied with no hesitation. The past five days had been filled with laughter because of Natsu.

"Have you been hanging out with Levy a lot?" Layla assumed.

"Levy-chan has been sick for a while," Lucy answered, plopping onto the couch. "We haven't been able to hang out this week."

"Is that so? Oh, I hope Levy gets better soon," Layla spoke.

"M-Me too!" Lucy squeaked as Natsu poked her side again.

"Are you okay, Lucy?" Layla asked after listening to Lucy's giggles.

"There's a really funny show on right now!" she laughed loudly, Natsu never pausing to torture her.

"Well, it seems like you're enjoying it. I'll let you watch it then," Layla said with a smile in her voice.

"I'll talk to you later, Mom!" she hastily hung up, hearing her mother begin to say something but was cut off.

Natsu's hands returned to his lap as he grinned at her.

"Keep your hands to yourself," she ordered.

"But you're my only entertainment," he whined. "It's the last day of spring break and I have nothing to do."

"Let's go out then," she surged up from the couch and looked down at his confused expression.

"Where?" he inquired.

"The arcade?" she suggested.

"Okay," he responded with bright eyes twinkling with excitement.

"I need to get out, too," she agreed.

With Levy being sick, Lucy had spent her entire break indoors with Natsu. She claimed it was torture, but in the inside, she was having fun.

They were closer than ever before; Lucy didn't mind his habit of roaming around the apartment shirtless anymore. Natsu didn't mind Lucy's singing in the shower anymore either.

They had gotten so close, the invisible line was gone. Now, Lucy could easily enter his side of the apartment without the fear of having to clean dishes for three months.

"Your mom always calls you, but your dad never does," Natsu remarked as they strolled to the arcade.

"My dad is weird," Lucy shrugged slightly. He was much more than that, but she didn't want to get into it.

"What about you?" she glanced at him. "Your parents never call you."

"They're busy," he mumbled.

"So busy that they can't call you?" she tilted her head with a puzzled expression.

"Seems like it," he nodded, rushing into the arcade before Lucy could interrogate him any further.

"Wait for me!" she called out, rushing to catch up with him.

In the blink of an eye, Natsu and Lucy had wasted all their money by attempting to beat each other at the various arcade games.

"Here," Natsu handed her a bundle of yellow tickets when they had decided to stop competing for the night.

"How many tickets are these?!" she exclaimed.

"If you put the tickets in that machine over there, it'll tell you," he nodded his head towards a box decorated with lights.

Lucy eagerly entered the tickets into the machine, the number revealing how many tickets there were increasing rapidly.

Levy took care of the tickets the last time, so Lucy never got the chance to experience the thrill of seeing how many tickets there were.

"Five hundred tickets?!" she read the number with disbelief.

"I won the jackpot on one of these games," Natsu lifted his hand and lazily waved at one of the games.

"Really?" she was almost jumping in place from happiness.

"Let's go see what you can get," he led her to the prize section.

Lucy didn't need to look through the prizes very long. As soon as her eyes landed on a snowman-like plushie, she knew that's what she wanted.

"Luce, that's only two hundred tickets," Natsu pointed out.

"You can have the leftover three hundred," she responded, content with the plushie that had a striking resemblance to her dog named Plue.

Natsu was completely dumbfounded as he searched for a prize that perked his interest. He was seconds away from getting fifteen rainbow slinkies, but Lucy's voice interrupted him.

"How about this?" she held up a light blue plushie in the shape of a fish.

"For Happy?" he inquired, scrutinizing the plushie.

"He likes fish, right?" Lucy remarked. "Happy would like this if you gave it to him."

"Good enough for me," he replied.

After getting the prizes, Lucy squeezed her new plushie, Plue, with all her might.

"Why do you like that snowman so much?" Natsu questioned.

"It reminds me of my dog at my old home," Lucy answered with a small smile.

"Do you miss your old home?" he asked.

"Sometimes," she admitted. "Do you miss your old home?"

"Not really," he replied plainly.

"Why not?" she lifted an eyebrow.

"Because I like my new home better," he grinned.

"Oh," she said with large eyes, wishing that the streetlights surrounding them weren't bright enough to show her rosy cheeks.

As Natsu unlocked the door for them, they entered the apartment. They caught a glimpse of the time and they both let out a sigh at the same time.

"We have school tomorrow," they groaned.

"Are you excited to be in the same class with me?" Natsu asked with a smirk.

"Excitement is an overstatement," she quipped.

"Hey," he frowned.

"Don't oversleep tomorrow, _classmate_," she stifled a laugh when she was about to enter her room for the night.

"At least I haven't overslept _twice,_ classmate," he retorted.

"It was only once!" she proclaimed, entering her room and shutting the door behind her.

Natsu entered his room as well, Lucy could hear his steps through the wall.

"Goodnight, Luce," he said from the other side of the wall.

"Goodnight, Natsu," she smiled at her wall, being able to imagine his goofy grin behind it.

Lucy leaped into her bed and snuggled against her covers with her smile remaining.

She was starting a new school year. She was going to be making new friends, memories, and perhaps even an enemy or two.

Lucy couldn't quite understand what she was feeling about being in the same classroom, but she absolutely couldn't wait for school to start tomorrow.

She turned her head on her pillow to look at the wall. Was Natsu looking forward to it as much as she was?

Well, she liked to think so.


	9. Chapter 9

**So can we talk about how perfectamazingohmygodwhat Fairy Tail chapter 418 was?**

**Oh god, I lost count on how many times I've read that chapter. Everyone's hair is so majestic and wavy, wow.**

**Setting the hair aside, I'm just really glad Natsu and Lucy have reunited. I'm happy there was a timeskip even though I would have liked to see what happened in the year.**

**Fingers crossed that more heartwarming reunions will be coming up soon!**

**Well, anyway, the drama in this fanfic is slowly making its way here! Expect the unexpected. ;-) **

**Happy February, everyone! It's awesome to start this month with 400 reviews and nearly 400 follows. ilysm.**

**Enjoy this chapter and see you guys next Wednesday! **

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><p>Hearing her annoying alarm for the first time in two weeks, Lucy's brows furrowed. She wasted no time to reach over her bed to turn it off.<p>

She had received plenty of sleep, but she let out a yawn while trudging to the bathroom. She lazily brushed her teeth having forgotten how much work it took to simply get ready for school.

But when she slipped on her school uniform, a tingling sensation spread across her chest. Starting today, the red ribbon that wrapped under the collar of her blouse was now green.

Lucy would never admit this, but one of her favorite parts of going on to the next grade was being able to switch ribbon colors.

"Today is definitely going to be a good day," she sighed to herself in delight, happily sliding her lunch off the counter and heading for the door.

The morning spring breeze instantly relaxed her as it brushed against her legs. The light pink cherry blossom petals slowly dipping to the ground was utterly calming.

The blonde softly hummed while stepping down each stair. It wasn't until she reached the ground when she realized who had slipped her mind.

"Natsu!" she exclaimed, sprinting up the stairs and hurriedly unlocking the door.

"Natsu, wake up!" she shouted as she pounded on his closed door with her fist.

Lucy pressed her ear against the door to listen for any shuffling around. When she heard silence, she knew she had to go in.

"Natsu, get up!" she yelled frantically after seeing him still lying down in bed.

"Later," he shifted in his bed and turned away from her.

"We have school!" she told him as she reached over to him and snatched away his blanket.

"Luce," he groaned with his eyes closed. He attempted to feel the air for his blanket but was disappointed when he couldn't find it.

"We have to go to school," she stated.

"Are we late?" he asked, rubbing his eyes to open them.

"We will be if you don't get up," she answered.

"Fine," he mumbled, rising from his bed.

"Do you _need _to sleep without a shirt on?" she inquired with her arms crossed, following him out of his room.

"I thought you didn't mind it," he countered.

"I don't, but—"

Lucy didn't get to finish her sentence as Natsu cut her off by closing the bathroom door on her.

"I'm going to hide his hot sauce again," she muttered to herself, sitting on the couch to wait on him.

"You can go to school without me," he said when he started to button up his shirt.

"I want some company," she responded. She had no intention to tell him that she almost forgot about him.

"Weirdo," he chuckled, grabbing his lunch from the counter. "Well, let's go to school."

"Okay," she smiled as she surged up from the couch.

"Why are you getting so many texts?" Natsu questioned once he heard the vibration of Lucy's phone for the fifth time.

"Levy was afraid I wasn't coming," Lucy explained, her steps gradually becoming faster.

"We're going to make it on time," he assured. "And if we don't then…"

"Then?" she raised an eyebrow as his voice trailed off.

"We'll figure it out," he shrugged.

Just as assured, the two made it to school on time. Natsu childishly stuck his tongue out at Lucy as she scanned the board with the list of names.

"Class S," she spoke.

"We're in Class S?" Natsu asked.

"Yep," she nodded, entering the school in search for her new classroom.

After some bickering about where the classroom was, eventually they reached a room with voices streaming out of the door into the hallway. Several of the voices belonged to their friends.

"Lu-chan!" Levy waved from her seat. "Come here, we saved you a seat!"

"What took you so long?" Cana frowned.

"You came here with Natsu," Erza observed.

"We couldn't find the classroom," she admitted while sliding into her seat. Natsu had gone off to talk to his friends.

"Well, we're all here now!" Levy grinned.

"Who else is in here?" Lucy asked curiously, twisting around in her seat to see if there was anyone she didn't recognize.

Lucy immediately noticed Gray, Jellal, and Natsu. She went on to check who else was in the class and when her eyes landed on the last person, she paused.

"Hey, Levy," she raised a finger to point at the person. "Isn't that the guy who—"

"Lu-chan!" Levy swiftly pressed a finger against her lips. "Shh!"

"Isn't that Gajeel?" Lucy whispered.

"Don't say anything!" Levy shook her head quickly, too flustered to act normal.

Lucy stifled a laugh, guaranteeing she wouldn't say a word.

"Levy likes the strange ones," Cana stated.

"And you don't?" Erza remarked, giving her a nudge.

"G-Good morning, everyone!" a breathless voice came up behind Lucy.

"Hey, Lisanna!" Levy smiled while giving her a wave. "I didn't know you were in this class, too!"

"Y-Yep," she breathed out, plopping into the last empty desk surrounding them. "I woke up late this morning."

"Me too," Natsu spoke, joining the group of girls.

"Hey, Lucy," Gray nodded.

"Good morning," she replied with a small smile.

"Our teacher should be coming soon," Jellal said, glancing at the time.

And on cue, the first bell of the day rang throughout the school. All the voices quickly dropped to a whisper as they patiently waited for their homeroom teacher to enter.

"Good morning, everyone," a man strode into the classroom. "I'm going to be your homeroom teacher this year."

"Good morning," the class responded politely.

"First thing's first," he slid out a black box underneath his podium. "We'll be having assigned seats."

It took everyone's strength to not let out a sigh. Assigned seats were alwaysfrustrating.

"You're allowed to trade desk numbers if you'd like. Just don't let me see," he spoke, allowing the students to reach into the box.

Lucy reluctantly stood up from her desk and joined the line to the small squares of paper.

"I hope I get to sit in the back," Natsu muttered behind her.

"I hope you sit in the front," she quipped, letting her fingers swim around the paper. When she felt she found the right one, she pulled it out of the box.

"What'd you get?" he inquired, peeking over Lucy's shoulder as she looked at her desk number.

"I got a desk in the back," she grinned, exiting the line and going to her new desk.

"So did I," Natsu did a smug smile when he followed her to the back.

Lucy's jaw fell as she watched Natsu nonchalantly sit beside her.

"Trade with someone!" she commanded with large eyes.

"No way," he shook his head. "I like this desk."

Lucy was seconds away from trading her desk with someone else's, but when she noticed Levy sitting in front of her, she knew she might have a chance at surviving.

"This worked out perfectly!" Levy cheered when all the seats were assigned.

"Somewhat," Lucy mumbled.

Like the whale show at the aquarium, she uncomfortably sat in-between Gray and Natsu.

"I like this seating arrangement," Lisanna smiled, her seat being beside Natsu's.

"Of course Jellal and Erza get a seat in the front," Cana scoffed beside Levy.

"They probably love their seat," Gray chuckled.

Knowing them, Lucy knew it was true. They were the smartest students in school after all.

Everyone seemed to be semi-content on their assigned seats except for one person—Levy.

"Help me," she hastily wrote on a crumpled up piece of paper.

"Gajeel isn't going to do anything," Lucy wrote back while pressing her lips in a tight line to prevent her from laughing.

Lucy could see Levy squirming in her seat, stealing glances at Gajeel on the right side of her. He didn't seem to notice.

"I don't think he remembers me," Levy said on the paper.

"Why don't you talk to him?" Lucy suggested.

She leaned over to place the note on Levy's desk, but the clearing of a throat made her freeze.

"Already passing notes on the first day?" the teacher clicked their tongue in disapproval.

"S-Sorry," Lucy stammered, slowly learning back in her desk and putting the paper away.

"Don't do it again," he instructed.

"Yes, sir," she mumbled.

She could hear Natsu snicker beside her. She sent him a death glare in response.

"And that's all I have to say for today. Let's have a good school year together, everyone," the teacher said before exiting the classroom for the next period.

"Isn't he going to be our homeroom teacher again next year?" Levy asked while everyone waited for the next teacher entered.

"Oh, that's right," Gray recalled. "We don't switch classes anymore."

"So we're all going to be in the same class until we graduate?" Cana inquired.

"Correct," Jellal answered, joining the back of the classroom.

"I can't tell if I'm happy or sad," Natsu stated.

"Agreed," Lucy nodded.

"We'll just have to see where the year takes us," Lisanna spoke optimistically.

"Right!" Levy agreed.

The next class soon arrived and before Lucy could stop herself, she began to zone out. She was hauled out of herdaze when Natsu kicked one of the legs of her chair.

"Pay attention," he ordered.

"What are we doing?" she asked, staring at everyone shuffling around the classroom with a puzzled expression.

"We're playing a game," he responded as he scooted his desk next to hers.

"_We?_" she repeated.

"Were you _that _zoned out?" he lifted an eyebrow. "Our teacher wants us to play two truths and one lie with one another."

"For what?" she inquired.

"To get to know each other better or something," he shrugged. "Anyway, let's start."

"But we already know each other!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, really? Let's see how much you know me then," he challenged.

"Okay," Lucy accepted his challenge, already becoming nervous.

She viewed Natsu think about his statements. Less than a minute later, he was ready.

"I had a cat named Happy," Natsu stated.

Lucy already knew this was true. She tried not to roll her eyes.

"I wanted to be a dragon slayer when I was younger," he went on to his second statement.

Lucy stared at him expressionlessly. It seemed like it was the truth due to his immense amount of dragon themed video games, but she wasn't sure just yet.

"And I don't have any regrets in my life," he finished. He quickly added, "I don't plan to have any either."

"The last one," Lucy answered immediately. "You must have at least one regret in your life."

"Nope," Natsu smirked. "The first one is a lie."

"But you have a cat named Happy!" she proclaimed.

"Right," he nodded. "But I said I _had_ a cat named Happy."

"I can't believe you," Lucy sighed, rubbing her temples. A triumphant grin spread across Natsu's face.

"Lu-chan, let's play!" Levy turned around in her seat and waved her over.

"But we're not finished," Natsu opposed. "Play with Gajeel instead."

Levy's eyes instantly widened as Gajeel glanced at her. Since their eyes connected, Levy felt obliged to play the game with him.

"H-Hi," she whispered softly.

"Yo," he grunted, scooting his desk closer to hers.

Lucy desperately wanted to hear their conversation, but Natsu's finger poking at her stomach directed her attention elsewhere.

"You go now," Natsu leaned back in his seat.

"You won't be able to guess it right," she warned.

"Try me," he responded.

"Well, I have a dog named Plue," she began.

"I used to have a lot of imaginary friends when I was younger," she went on.

"Were they real?" Natsu interrupted.

"Of course they weren't," she scoffed. "But at the time, I liked to think they were."

Lucy purposely hesitated before saying her last statement in hopes that would tell Natsu this was her lie.

"And I'm a hopeless romantic," she concluded.

"The first one is the lie," Natsu answered just as immediate as she had.

"How did you know?!" she asked with bewilderment.

"I heard you talking to your mom once that Plue wasn't really a dog," he replied simply.

"Don't eavesdrop on my conversations!" she roughly pushed on his shoulder, earning a laugh from him.

"I win," he grinned a smile similar to a child's.

"Shut up," she rose from her seat to go play with Cana.

Many truths and lies later, the first day of school was finally coming to a close. The students were glad they didn't learn anything on the first day, but they knew learning would be starting tomorrow.

But to Lucy, learning was something she'd worried about later.

"Lucy, when are we going to your apartment again?" Cana inquired seconds before the last bell chimed to dismiss the students.

"Whenever you want," Lucy responded.

"Can we go tomorrow?" Levy asked.

"Sure," she answered without a second thought. But her breath hitched when she realized that tomorrow was the day that Gray was going to come over and 'supervise.'

"I look forward to it then," Erza smiled.

"Where is Gray?" Lucy asked frantically while scanning the classroom.

"He just left the classroom," Lisanna answered.

"See you guys tomorrow!" Lucy exclaimed, dashing out of the classroom in search for Gray.

She _needed _to find him in order to change his day to come over. If she didn't find him, everything would turn into a disaster tomorrow.

She was out of breath after she had looked through the entire school for Gray.

"This isn't going to be good," she whispered while hurriedly returning home.

Her hands shook as she unlocked the door, anxiously rushing inside.

"Natsu!" Lucy called out to see if he was home.

"What?" he poked his head out of his room.

"My friends want to come over tomorrow and Gray is coming over tomorrow, too!" she babbled. "What do we do?!"

"I'll tell Gray to come over another day then," he responded nonchalantly.

"Do you think he'll want to do that?" she bit her lip.

"He'll get over it," he shrugged, strolling to the couch.

Lucy felt all her energy drain out of her as she leaned against the wall in relief.

"Thank Mavis," she sighed.

Pushing herself off the wall, she fell onto the couch beside Natsu.

"What are you looking at?" she questioned when she felt Natsu's eyes fixated on her.

He looked at her for a moment before replying.

"Your hair is messed up," he muttered, rising to turn on the TV and play his video game.

"It's not!" she exclaimed with her hands patting down her hair.

"I know messy hair when I see it," he stated with a smirk.

"Then look at your hair," she pointed to his pink spikes.

"Happy thinks it looks fine," he replied.

"What does that have to do with anything?" her brows furrowed immediately with confusion.

"Absolutely nothing," he responded.

Lucy knew she was no match for Natsu, so she decided to give up just this once.

"You win," she shook her head.

Not bothering to pay attention to his celebration of winning, Lucy made dinner with an enthusiasm she had no idea that was inside of her.

She anticipated her friends coming over, but she was also quite excited for all that was to come in the school year.

Being in the same class as Natsu was strange, but she knew she had to get used to it if she wanted to survive the rest of her high school life.

"We'll just have to see where the year takes us," she repeated Lisanna's words softly to herself.

"Are you talking to yourself?" Natsu inquired from the living room.

"You're imagining things, Natsu," Lucy answered from the kitchen.

A smile spread across her lips as she continued making dinner. With Natsu being in her life, she knew that wherever this school year took her, she would most likely be expecting something entirely different.

Perhaps it was best to just expect the unexpected from now on.


	10. Chapter 10

**Since the FT updates have been moved to Saturday (or at least I think they have) Mondays have been so lonely. **

**By the time Wednesday comes along, everyone has already heard about the new chapter! How depressing.**

**Chapters from here on will be soaked with dramadramadrama so look forward to that, everyone! I'm excited to write it all.**

**With each chapter I publish, this story grows more and more and I couldn't be happier. You guys are awesome and don't ever forget that.**

**That's all I have to say for now! I'd love if you dropped a review to tell me your thoughts on this chapter. ;]**

**Enjoy this chapter~**

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><p>Lucy apprehensively bobbed her leg under her desk as she hastily wrote down her notes. When she was finished writing, she went straight to chewing on the tip of her pen.<p>

She had been in school for a total of four hours and she had yet to hear Natsu talk about the change of plans to Gray.

"He didn't forget, did he?" Lucy thought to herself with worry.

"Are you okay?" Natsu mumbled to Lucy after taking note of her bouncing leg.

"Did you forget to tell Gray about today?" she whispered.

"What about me?" Gray inquired, hearing his name.

"Nothing," she shook her head in response and returned to her notes before she got into trouble.

"I'll tell you later," Natsu waved Gray off.

"Everyone have a good day," the teacher nodded to everyone before exiting.

"Finally!" Levy sighed, her arms stretching up to the ceiling. "I'm starving."

"I could hear your stomach the entire period," Gajeel muttered.

"No, you couldn't!" she exclaimed.

Lucy listened to the two pester each other with entertainment. It was only the second day of school, but Levy and Gajeel were slowly warming up to each other. It was always nice to see who made the first step to getting closer.

After scooting several desks together so everyone could eat together, Lucy happily took out her lunch.

"I'm excited to go to your apartment today, Lucy," Erza smiled.

"I brought the drinks again," Cana wriggled her eyebrows.

"Lisanna, why don't you come to Lucy's apartment?" Levy offered.

"Can I?" Lisanna's eyes widened.

"Of course!" Lucy assured with a nod.

It wasn't until Lisanna smiled when Lucy recalled something incredibly important. She immediately stopped chewing.

Lisanna had visited the apartment to pick up Natsu on the day everyone went to the aquarium.

Looking around to see if anybody noticed, Lucy resumed nibbling her food anxiously. She was absolutely clueless on what to do now. What was there she could do?

"I don't think I can stay long, though," Lisanna confessed. "I have to go work with my sister at the restaurant."

"You have a _job?_" Levy gasped.

"Only part-time," she explained. "I help out with the waitressing."

"Can we go to your job?" Cana asked.

"I want to go, too!" Levy agreed.

"I'm going to get so embarrassed if you come!" Lisanna pouted.

"If you have any, what kind of cakes are there at the restaurant?" Erza questioned.

"We're famous for our strawberry one," she replied.

"We're going," Erza stated immediately. "We're going as soon as we get out of school tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me," Cana shrugged.

"Great!" Levy clapped her hands.

"I'm excited now," Lucy smiled slightly, slowly recovering from her uneasiness.

"Wait, guys," Lisanna gave everyone a nervous glance.

"What?" Erza tilted her head, her eyes only thinking about the cake.

"I don't work tomorrow," Lisanna spoke.

And simultaneously, the girls' faces fell.

"I'm sorry!" Lisanna apologized.

"Can we go, anyway?" Levy nearly pleaded.

"Well, I don't see why not," she mused after a while.

"Then we're going," Erza announced again.

"Well, alright," Lisanna responded hesitantly.

"So it's settled," Lucy said.

"Yep," the rest of the girls nodded.

"What's settled?" Natsu inquired, joining the group.

"We're going to go to Lisanna's job tomorrow," Levy answered gleefully.

"Can we go, too?" Gray asked.

"Yeah, it sounds fun," Jellal chimed in.

"E-Everyone is going to go?!" Lisanna exclaimed, instantly becoming flustered.

"You won't be working, remember?" Lucy reminded.

Lisanna breathed out a sigh of relief as she remembered. Lucy giggled in response.

The bell that signaled the end of lunch began to ring. Though nobody wanted to, everyone placed the desk back to its rightful home.

"Did you tell him?" Lucy interrogated Natsu when they were back in their seats.

"Yeah, we're going to the arcade today," he replied.

"Good," she felt a heavy weight on her shoulders disappear.

"You worry too much," he chuckled, giving one of the legs of her desk a gentle nudge.

"There's nothing wrong with worrying," she huffed while sliding out one of her notebooks.

Since it was the first day of learning, it was as easy as it could get. Once the last bell of the day chimed, Lucy waited for her friends to get ready and leave with her.

"Lisanna, you're going with them?" Natsu raised an eyebrow before the girls left the classroom.

"I want to see Lucy's apartment," Lisanna proclaimed.

Lucy watched Natsu's eyes flicker with something she couldn't detect.

"It probably smells funny," he scoffed.

"You would know," Gray jabbed an elbow in Natsu's face. "See you all later then."

"Bye," the girls waved behind them, stepping out of the classroom.

Of course, Levy was extremely excited as they walked to Lucy's home.

But Lucy's heart pounded in her ears with each step she took. She had already accepted her fate of being found out due to Lisanna.

"Hey," Lisanna casted a look around her. "Doesn't Natsu live around here?"

"D-Does he?" Lucy stammered, trying not to stumble over her words. "I wouldn't know."

"But how would _you _know?" Cana inquired to Lisanna.

"That day we all went to the aquarium, Gray and I went to pick up Natsu at his home," Lisanna answered.

"How messy is Natsu's home on a scale of one to ten?" Erza asked.

"I didn't get to see it," Lisanna revealed. "By the time we reached the apartment buildings, Natsu was already outside."

Lisanna's response sounded like music to Lucy's ears. Lucy felt so utterly relieved she wanted to give Lisanna a hug. Everything should be alright now.

"Oh, these are the apartments Natsu lives in!" Lisanna pointed to the several complexes.

"So Natsu lives around here, too?" Levy examined the buildings.

"That's weird," Lucy stated, playing along with the conversation.

"I want to go to Natsu's apartment one day," Erza spoke. "I want to see how messy it is."

"It probably smells really bad," Cana sneered.

"I wouldn't doubt it," Lisanna giggled.

"You've known Natsu for a long time, haven't you?" Cana remarked.

"For a really long time," she nodded with a smile.

"How was Natsu as a kid?" Levy asked curiously.

Lucy listened in as Lisanna described Natsu as a child while she unlocked her front door.

"You two raised a cat together?" Lucy repeated incredulously when everyone had stepped inside.

"Yes, and his name was—"

Lisanna paused when her eyes fell on the blue cat roaming up to the girls.

"Happy?!" she blurted out, picking up the cat. "What are you doing here?!"

"How do you know Happy?" Lucy tilted her head.

"This is the cat!" she shouted with bewilderment. "Happy is the cat Natsu and I raised when we were younger!"

"So the cat that comes into Lucy's apartment is Natsu's?" Erza inquired.

"Happy comes in here?" Lisanna turned to Lucy with a puzzled expression.

"Every time I come home, Happy is always here," Lucy bluffed, her anxiety rapidly returning.

"Natsu must live pretty close then," Levy mentioned.

"Imagine if you were neighbors!" Cana cackled.

Lucy laughed at her ironic joke. It took all her strength to not reply, "You don't have to imagine that."

"Well, now I know where Happy comes from," she stated.

"We should follow Happy to find out where Natsu lives," Erza suggested.

"That's weird, Erza," Cana gave her a strange look. "Don't you want to know where Jellal lives first?"

Erza's eyes immediately began to shoot lasers at Cana. Cana didn't have to think twice about backing off after that.

"Well, I have to go now," Lisanna glanced at the clock after the girls had eaten a small snack.

"Already?" Levy whined. "But you only had a snack!"

"I'll eat a little at the restaurant," Lisanna guaranteed her concerned friend. She rose from her chair and began to walk to the door.

"Whoa, you have a lot of hot sauce here," she observed the bottles of hot sauce on the counter.

"What's the restaurant called, anyway?" Lucy directed her attention elsewhere while she walked Lisanna the rest of the way.

"Fairy Tail," she beamed.

"That's a nice name!" Levy called out from the table.

"Thanks," she grinned, stepping outside.

"Thanks for coming over," Lucy gave her a smile.

"Let me come and hang out with you guys again soon!" Lisanna waved.

"Anytime you want," Lucy replied. "See you tomorrow!"

She watched Lisanna go down the stairs as she closed the door. For now, she was entirely safe.

Strolling back to the table, she listened to the conversation her friends were having.

"There's no way you _don't_ like Gajeel," Cana accused. "You look at him with every chance you get."

"I don't like him!" Levy complained, turning to Lucy. "Lu-chan, back me up here!"

"I'm not saying anything," Lucy shook her head.

"Because she knows I'm right," Cana smirked.

"H-How about Erza and Jellal?" Levy pointed at Erza.

"What about us?" Erza raised an eyebrow, an intimidating aura surrounding her.

"Never mind," Levy pouted in defeat.

Lucy giggled; they sure knew just how to tease each other.

After munching on some junk food and watching a bit of TV, the sky began to darken.

"I guess we should go now, huh?" Levy looked at the time on the wall. "It's getting late."

"Yeah, I need to go do some things," Cana pushed herself off the couch.

"Student council meetings are going to start soon," Erza said. "I should probably go plan some of the meetings."

"Of course, Erza has to do something school related," Cana scoffed.

"Always," Erza smiled proudly.

"I'll see you tomorrow then," Lucy responded to them.

"Thanks for letting us come over!" Levy waved as she started to leave, pausing to pet Happy behind the ears.

"See you tomorrow," Cana waved as well.

"Bye, Lucy," Erza added in.

The girls left the apartment, Lucy closing the door behind them. She spun around on her heels and stared at nothing in particular.

The transition from having friends over to being alone was something she could never get used to.

"That was close one," she eventually sighed to Happy, squatting down to his level. "So you were raised by Natsu and Lisanna?"

Happy's black eyes were as inexpressive as they could be, but Lucy pretended she could read them.

"Weird," she ruffled his fur before getting back up.

To pass the time, she took a lengthy shower. She was in the middle of drying her hair with a towel when Natsu entered the apartment.

"Hey," he greeted.

"How was the arcade?" Lucy asked, shuffling to the couch.

"Here you go," he grinned as he handed her several rainbow slinkies.

"What am I going to do with these?" she scrutinized at the slinkies.

"Play with them, of course. What else?" he answered as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

She rolled her eyes as while he went to turn on the TV to play his video game.

"They're fun, aren't they?" Natsu smirked after noticing her playing with the slinky in her hand.

"A little," she muttered.

"Did Lisanna notice anything while she was here?" he leaned into the couch to get comfortable.

Lucy went straight into explaining everything from start to finish. She was out of breath as she viewed Natsu think about the situation.

Since his thinking process was definitely slower than normal, Lucy couldn't help but ask the question that was too thick to swallow down.

"How long have you known Lisanna?"

"For as long as I can remember," he replied. "Lisanna was my first best friend."

"I feel bad for Lisanna," Lucy admitted. "Having to know you for so long must painful—"

"Hey," he frowned, flicking her forehead. "She hasn't complained once."

After several attempts to flick his forehead but only to fail miserably, she stood up from the couch.

"I might ask Lisanna for a secret about you someday," she grinned while going to her bedroom.

"Too bad for you because Lisanna and I swore to never tell each other's secrets," he retorted.

"We'll have to see then," Lucy giggled softly.

"She won't tell you!" Natsu declared.

"We'll have to see," she repeated, simply pushing his buttons. "Goodnight now."

"Goodnight," he turned back around to the TV.

Closing the door behind her, Lucy lied down in her bed and rolled around until she felt comfortable enough to think about what happened that day.

She had somehow managed to get away with the strange coincidences involving Natsu. It was hard to believe Lisanna didn't question any of it.

"Lisanna," Lucy breathed out, recalling all the small stories she shared about Natsu as a child.

The more she thought the stories, the heavier her chest became.

"Am I getting sick?" she wondered, unfamiliar with the feeling.

This heavy feeling was completely foreign. She had never felt something this gloomy before.

"I'm overthinking again," she groaned into her pillow.

Deciding to put on some soft music, Lucy hummed along with the lyrics until she fell asleep. She forced back anything to do with Natsu and Lisanna to the back of her mind.

Whatever that feeling was, she absolutely did not want to feel it again.

But it was no wonder Lucy felt something like that—she was notorious for overthinking about anything and everything, after all.


End file.
